Be Like the Moon
by Hoorg
Summary: Victória Machado initially had no intention of becoming a hero. It had been just another opportunity that eventually became reality as she got accepted into the prestigious U.A. High School of Japan. However, she eventually finds meaning in her situation when her long lost family comes back to her, and she will do her best to try to live up to the expectations of the ones who came
1. Be like the moon

"We're here! What do you think?"

The older woman exclaimed before opening the door to her new apartment. It was a standard 2LDK Japanese apartment, meaning there was a larger room were most of the kitchenware could be found, plus two additional medium sized bedrooms and a bathroom. There wasn't much furniture yet, only a fridge, a stove, a microwave oven, and two closets and _futons_ , one for each bedroom.

Victória stepped forward slowly, getting ahead of her mother. Pressing her large claws against the sterile white walls as she walked, making a kind of relaxing friction sound without actually damaging the house. For her, the empty house was ambiguous: an end and a new beginning; a fixed place to call her own; a home. She could have continued the motion for hours, her eyes trailing along the corners, counting and announcing electrical sockets, windows, opportunities. However, that would take the rest of the evening, or even more time. And she wasn't much of a chatty girl anyways.

"It looks like how unseasoned tofu tastes."

Her mother, Glória, couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the response. Victória didn't make a lot of jokes or talk casually like that unless they were alone at home, so she enjoyed every bit of teen sarcasm the girl let out. "Well, after unpacking we can make it look more like… Add some… Uh… I don't know what people eat tofu with."

"Soy sauce."

"Yeah, right. Anyways, the company said the router is already here, you just gotta plug it in." Glória pointed at a corner of the living room, where a small brown cardboard box rested.

Victória kneeled next to it, and used her sharp claws to neatly cut the tape holding it shut. After a swift reading of the manual that didn't help at all since the machine was already all set up, she plugged it into a nearby electrical socket. The trip was long, and she wasn't bothered to change the password right now. She simply flopped onto the cold wooden floor and took her cellphone out of her pocket.

"Eros says he just got into the apartment upstairs as well. Did you remind him that people aren't supposed to loudly exercise at night in Japan, mom?"

"Three times. He'll probably do it anyways, to be honest, but it's not our problem anymore. He's old enough to take care of himself." Glória paused briefly to look at her daughter while she talked, went out the front door get their bags. "He was the one that chose to live in the highest floor in a building that has no elevator. His wellbeing in any other place rather than the academy is not my responsibility."

"How's the new academy going, by the way? You kinda just dropped me off in a random street in the middle of Musutafu and told me to find my way around while you were inspecting the tatamis or whatever."

"No need to be witty this late at night, young lady. The academy is going very well, and should be ready to open this week! Aren't you excited to be assisting me again?"

Victória's response was a quiet "mhm", her main focus placed on the device in her hands. The touch screen was adapted especially for her type of quirk, so that the touchscreen would work properly when touched by her scaly thumbs and her claws, and not break for doing so. "Don't you think people are going to make a big deal about me working in a _quirkless_ academy?"

"Don't worry about that, I've heard the people of Japan are way more polite than the Americans. Anyways, did Nezu send you anything regarding the recommendation letter, sweetie?" Glória asked as she reentered through the front door, now carrying all of their luggage and some small decorations effortlessly. Unlike her daughter, she didn't have very defined muscles, but it was still possible to see that she packed quite a punch by the ever-present look of determination in her eyes.

"Hm… Nezu?"

"The principal, dear."

"Yeah… Let me…"

"Get off the floor, it's getting cold."

"Yeah, that's what I was going to say, obviously."

Victória slowly got up, and began pacing around the house as she read part of the email to her mother.

"Dear Miss Machado… We are proud to announce that… No need to take the written test… But you will… Destroy giant robots."

Glória turned to face Victória and raised an eyebrow. "Does it really say that?"

"Partly. You can open the email on your own phone if you don't trust me, they sent it to you too."

"Oh! Well then, congratulations!"

Glória stopped her task and walked towards her daughter, giving her a tight, warm hug, gently stroking the line on the girl's chin where the dark green scales gave way to the warm beige skin. "You don't seem very happy about having just been accepted to one of the best super hero schools in the world, honey. Is something wrong?"

"Not really, I'm just cold."

" _Victória._ "

"Alright, alright, I mean … I still don't know if that's what I want to do. Hero work, that is, I'm glad to be finally be able to study in an actual school with actual people. No offense, but your homeschooling made me kind of depressed sometimes."

"Offense absolutely taken. Joking aside, it's still one of the best schools in the world. And plus, it's a reliable way to get your quirk license, right?"

"I guess…"

"Come on, sweetie, you're just tired." Glória pulled away from the embrace, giving her daughter a comforting smile. "You better head to bed. Giant robots tomorrow, remember?"

"Giant robots tomorrow indeed." Victória nodded, smiling back at her mother. If there was one thing that the older woman loved more about her daughter than the casual, everyday chitchat, was her smile. She usually had a stiff, reclusive posture, so every smile she let out felt brand new and as warm as the sun.

Victória took her time preparing herself to go to bed, taking another walk around the house to see if she missed anything still. Then finally, she looked out of the window - Two other apartment buildings covered the left and right corners of her field of view, and the bright pale moon could be seen between them, slowly going from one side to another. Moving on towards a new part of the planet that needed its light. Illuminating the nightlife all around the globe, making ever so visible the smallest acts of actions and feelings.

Victória wished she could be like the moon.


	2. Rip and tear

"I thought Nezu himself would be here. Or anyone at all. This is kind of a letdown."

Victória muttered to herself as she finally arrived at the practical exam area. A shiny plasticized sheet of paper containing the rules of the practical exam was neatly taped to the wall. The instructions were printed in a total of five different languages, though she chose to read the Japanese so that there was no risk of mistranslation harming her performance. Though she did take a glance at the other languages as well.

" _Your score increase by sending robots crash?_ Geez… Oh, this one robot is named Victory. Nice."

They had specified in the email that it wasn't necessary to wear the school's uniform during the exam, so she took the opportunity to pick something that would lend her an advantage in the test: a black crop top along with black shorts. She had still a few more dark colored accessories she could have picked, but she didn't want to test her luck with the school's uniform policy even though they didn't apply in the current situation. Besides, she was going to an entrance exam, not to a goth convention.

"Hm? There's another paper here."

Indeed there was, a smaller, newer looking paper taped to the left side of the main instructions. It read:

 _Due to your performance being solo, a few changes have been made to accommodate your experience:_

 _Test area reduced by roughly 75%._

 _Number of villain robots increased by 10%._

 _Score system has received confidential changes._

 _The duration of the test has been increased by two minutes._

 _New challenges may be added to suit the examination purpose._

The list went on and on, looking almost like the patch notes of a video game. Those percentages meant practically nothing to her as well, as she didn't know the exact original area size and number of robots. The mention of confidential changes was… worrying, to say the least, but she guessed that if they weren't available for her to see then it was nothing she needed to know.

As if waiting for her to finish reading the side paper, the gates to the exam grounds slowly opened with a loud, almost ground shaking noise. Victória wasted no more time pondering, and rushed towards the city replca.

With the summer sun shining through the enormous concrete jungle, the bird noises (which may or may not have been artificial) and the entrance gates not in sight anymore, it felt almost like a real yet abandoned city than a playground for the entrance exams. With extra emphasis on the _abandoned_ part, since there were still no robots in sight after what she assumed to be 20 seconds of light jogging.

" _Hmm…They're testing to see if I can track down villains effectively, I see."_

Victória walked towards a place where the light was unobstructed and crouched down. She touched the palms of her hands on the ground, her claws extending forward by instinct, and closed her eyes. With the sun hitting her exposed scales and black clothing, and the asphalt lending her its warmth, her body temperature was steadily increasing.

" _Nothing behind me… Nothing above or below… Ah, something over there!"_

Victória got up in a rush and bolted towards a moderately sized alley to the opposite of where she had been originally going towards. The combination of shadows hid its interior pretty well, but it was possible for her to see a faint glow coming from around the corner.

 **Jackpot.**

There laid her first challenge – one of the villain robots that was worth a single yet valuable point. Its single red eye lit up when she stepped in between the two buildings, the humanoid torso winding up an attack with both arms while the wheel desperately accelerated in hopes of trampling Victória before the same happened to it. The girl accepted the impromptu challenge, using her forward momentum as a boost while she was readying her claws and preparing to slide under the robot's own sharp swipe.

 _ **Slash!**_

"Eh?"

Victória's move was the one that prevailed. Her claws cut through the faux villain's torso as if it was jello, tearing the hull, the inner circuits, and finally reaching the other end and making both parts of the robot fall to the ground, immobile once again.

Victória turned around after she was done, virtually unscathed. She picked up a piece of the robot's chassis and briefly tried examining the material. It wasn't any type of alloy she knew – rather, a type of hardened plastic that was painted to look metallic and more resistant than it actually was.

 **Piece of cake.**

* * *

After a while, it looked like she had slashed, smashed and bashed every single robot whose path had crossed with hers. Victória was panting, her limbs starting to ache due to the extended endeavor but still in top condition. She took a while to rest on the ground and count how many she had destroyed – at least fifteen of each kind, excluding the zero-points, which had yet to make its appearance.

Speaking of the devil…

" _Five minutes remaining!"_

Suddenly, it felt like every single big red button in the control room had been pressed at the same time. Dozens of three-point robots emerged out of nowhere, as well as a terrifyingly loud screech. A metallic hand swooped in and destroyed the top of one of the nearby buildings, making the newest and most dangerous threat visible.

It had to have almost 50ft tall, with six glowing red orbs the size of her head staring down at her and recording her every move. Its torso was, like the weakest kind of robot, humanoid. The bottom part however resembled the structure of a sort of military tank, with gigantic wheels rotating inside the tracks and slowly moving the behemoth around the town. The most interesting part was that, besides the regular dark green painting present all the types robot, there was something else. The writing looked rushed, most likely done a few hours before Victória had arrived at the exam grounds, but it was still as clear as day.

" _1.000.000 points."_

Before Victória could even try to think of a strategy, the hand once again fell down on the ground like a hammer, shattering the concrete and creating a shockwave that sent her and a dozen of unfortunate one-point robots flying into the air and crashing against a car on the other side of the street, making it explode.

* * *

" _One minute remaining!"_

The Japanese male voice boomed through the air again, and it was what brought the consciousness back to Victória. She found herself laying down in an uncomfortable position atop a few robot carcasses, as well as some car parts and sidewalk rubble. There was fire all around her, and a few of the glass shards dug into the soft skin of her face, drawing the warm crimson blood out towards the collar of her shirt.

"Fire…?"

It took a few seconds for Victória to remember what had happened in the four minutes before, but she was **livid**. Whether it was because of her bruises and aches – that were painful enough to distract her but small enough to make her able to go on – or the large amount of heat that had suddenly seeped into her. The determination gave her already vivid green eyes an extra spark, rivaling that of the giant figure that was slowly approaching her once more.

She dashed right out of the pile towards the colossus – her feet stomping the ground and shattering small portions of it with every step she took. Two mechanical hands blocked her way halfway through, but she tore right through them even though they were _actual_ metal.

As she approached the target, she retracted the claws from her right hand and formed a fist, jumping onto the tank-like structure that supported all the massive weight of the giant.

 **Crash!**

A single punch was all she needed to send the enormous joint flying off the body – yet the torso and the "foot" froze in the air for a moment while gravity caught up to them, like the biggest game of _daruma otoshi_ ever won. Metal fell onto metal and sent the remainder of the robot tumbling down – luckily away from Victória. The light slowly faded from its red eyes, one by one.

" _Time's up!"_

* * *

"Eh! One million points?!"

Glória exclaimed, helping her daughter into the taxi and tossing her a water bottle. A small groan could be heard as the plastic container hit the girl's damaged hand, followed by a quick apology.

"It's probably not worth that much, mom. They just painted it like that so I would prioritize it over the smaller ones."

"And it worked."

" _And it worked."_ Victória repeated, struggling a little but eventually managing to open the bottle, her heartbeat and overall adrenaline rush gradually stopping as the cold liquid entered her body.

"Are you sure you can teach tomorrow's class like this, sweetie? You don't need to feel pressured just because it's the inauguration…"

"The nurse said my hand going to be as good as new once I wake up from tonight's sleep, so yeah. Plus, I'm only going to be helping Eros with the children's' class, and I don't think I'm going to be punching kids so hard my knuckles shatter _again_." She paused, taking another sip. "…I don't think I'm going to be punching kids at all, actually."

"Fair point, you have convinced me enough already. Now, let's go for a little tour! Next stop, Musutafu's brand new Little Stars Fighting Academy!"


	3. Welcome to our academy!

"Leaving so soon, young Midoriya?"

All-Might popped into his weird, lanky form as the young boy finished his exercise routine for the day. He hated it – each day that passed felt like that was becoming his default body, instead of the muscular shape he had for most of his life – but he wouldn't let pride and nostalgia let in the way of his gradual recovery. If it could even be called that, he was starting to get the feeling that it was more of a slow goodbye than a proper regeneration.

"Ah, yeah! I have… Well, a new place opened up downtown." Izuku let out a sigh as he started feeling his muscles slowly go sore from the intense exercise routine. "It's a fighting academy for quirkless people."

"Oh? Have you regretted your decision so soon? What a shame, I guess you'll have to pass One for All to one of your frien-" All-Might started, with a small tone of benevolent sarcasm in his voice, before his newfound pupil started spouting noises of embarrassment.

"Ah, no no no! Of course I haven't, I'm sorry All-Might! It's just… It's a little personal for me, you know? I thought I was going to stay quirkless for the rest of my life, so…" Now it was the larger man's turn to interrupt him.

"Don't worry, I understand what you mean, boy. I would have liked to come with you, but… It seems I have exhausted most of my One-For-All time for today, unfortunately. I will have to make a visit some other time; it's a shame I will have to skip on the inauguration." All-Might looked a little sad, but then morphed into his original, ever-grinning form once more to give Izuku his last speech for the day.

"Well, take a good look for me, young Midoriya! Maybe, if this whole UA teacher thing doesn't work out, I can give out a few classes there." He let out one of his characteristic thunderous laughs. "I will see you tomorrow, if you're still up to the challenge."

He watched as Izuku slowly faded into the distance, maintaining the muscular vessel until the small boy was lost to the horizon. The transformation back was accompanied by a small coughing of blood, but he was getting used to it at this point.

" _Ah, he forgot to tell me what it was called…"_

* * *

 **LITTLE STARS FIGHTING ACADEMY.**

The massive, metallic letters attached to the front of the sign spelled out, announcing to the whole town something new had arrived. The exterior was painted with vibrant tones of red and green, with some complementary white coloring. On the roof, there were cutouts of five pointed stars along with a big circle made out of tiny LED lights. Nobody had seen it yet, but the gimmick of this setup was that during the day small plastic appendages would pop from the outer surface of the circle, giving it the recognizable shape of a sun along with its sunrays. At night, however, the rays were gone, and the lights were set to a pale blue, almost white color, making it resemble a radiant full moon.

The building had three stories in total: the first one served as a lobby and waiting room, with monitors to show the action happening upstairs; the second was were the actual classes happened, containing a total of four large tatami rings, training equipment, changing and shower rooms for the students and teachers and a small podium-like structure from where the teachers could give out speeches; and finally, the highest floor was a general storage room. The building wasn't tall at all when compared to the enormous apartments and even UA itself, but it still had a strong aura around it. A small bastion in a cold world where quirkless people could do their best to become heroes, become each _little stars_ that together form a constellation whose light can shine brighter than that of the spotlight the quirk users had set onto themselves.

People crowded all around the building, trying to get a look through the various glass panes and windows scattered on it. The few who dared to go inside were mostly either small kids or the elderly, those who still had the spark of hope that their lack of a quirk could be useful to society; and those who wished to take a peak on what their life could have been like. Izuku was neither, although he still wanted to pay a visit to the place. He sneaked through the crowd in a hurry and made his way to one of the comfortable-looking chairs of the lobby that faced a monitor showing the second floor, not wanting to miss the precious few seconds before the class started.

Due to the small number of people that were willing to take the free first trial lesson, only two of the rings were in use. The one on the right from the stairs was occupied by Glória and a tall man wearing glasses who, would teach the elderly, while the kids would head to the left ring where Victória and Eros were.

If one was to just glance over him, it would look like Eros was a living version of one of those famous ancient Greek fighter marble sculptures. He had the characteristic short curly black hair and equally curly beard. His muscles were almost unnaturally large, and he stood at about 6'5 feet tall. The man oozed self-confidence and strength from every pore of his distinguished manly body, yet there was something caring and warm about the look in his eyes. That was especially important when working with small children.

Each of the teachers presented themselves, a genuine smile present on each of their faces. They each wore matching white sweatpants along with a shirt. Each of their shirts had a different symbol, however: Eros' was the sun, Glória's was a star, Victória's was the full moon and the remaining teacher – named Stephen – was an asteroid.

Waiting until both groups had formed lines behind their respective rings, the four of them stood up on the elevated part of the room, taking a while before bowing and speaking collectively:

" **Welcome everybody to our academy!"**

After a relatively easy round of collective warm-up and stretching exercises, both pairs of teachers separated into their respective rings. Glória and Stephen taught the older men and women a variety of self-defense techniques, from various different martial arts, cultures and even some made to combat specific types of quirk in case of a villain assault. Granted, the first thing they explained was that these were supposed to only be used in extreme situations, where there was no one nearby or there was just no reasoning with the opposing party. Most of the moves weren't suited for a prolonged assault, most useful in opening up escape opportunities and some techniques for binding the aggressor until the police or some other authority came.

The left ring, on the other hand, had a different mood entirely. After giving a speech about the history of heroes, villains and vigilantes, Eros' team involved the children in all sorts of playful yet educational activities, including: running around the room using different fighting stances, "sword duels" using the cushioned training bats, play-fights were they would all tackle Eros at once, and even a sort of simulation where Victória acted as a giant monster destroying a fictional city. Izuku understood that, even if each one of the scenarios had an educational value, their main purpose was entertainment, motivation. By involving the kids in these scenarios that had some resemblance to real life, it reinforced the idea that their actions mattered, in the academy and out there in the uncaring world.

* * *

The class was over after about an hour or so. Nobody was bruised or looked overly exhausted, but it was definitely an effort, and most of them had small smiles and expressions of enjoyment on their faces. Before they could leave, Eros suddenly jumped on the highest part of the podium and started giving out a speech. He had a loud, booming voice, yet it didn't feel like he was trying to forcefully grab everyone's attention. Rather, it was a congratulatory talk, a little celebration of their efforts so far.

The man cleared his throat, and took a small breath before proceeding.

" **I would like to thank you all for coming here today.**

 **As you all know, there are a few people like us who just so happened to be born without a quirk of our own. For most, it is a curse – a factor they cannot live with, a feeling as if a part of their very essence was missing.**

 **What we seek to teach in this academy, primarily, isn't just how to fight – or how to defend. It is the ability to respect. Respect both our fellow quirkless brothers and sisters, and those who were born with fortune on their side. There is no meaning to a fight if you don't respect your rival.**

 **I once had a close friend of mine have a serious talk with me. The man confessed that the worst part of his life experience wasn't not having something special going on for him, but to be treated as if he was nothing, less than nothing. To be ignored and stepped onto. A complete lack of respect.**

 **But we shall not fight hate with more hate, for that is how a war is born, not a sparring match. We must teach our rivals how to respect, combat their unfounded opinions by showing just how much we are capable of doing, how much effort we put into what we love.**

 **That is why I believe that you all are great candidates to be the heroes for the newer generations. To have the courage to step inside these doors, while everyone outside silently judges you, some just waiting for you to fail to boost their twisted ego, others with the sparks of heroism inside them yet with the burden of this oppressive society over their shoulders.**

 **Even if you do not enroll, even if you think your body is too weak to fight. Never forget this message. I want you all to go out there and from now on show these people the same spirit you showed in here today. To put your best into every little thing you do. May each of you, little stars, shine your light more intensely from now on, and guide our fellow fighting brothers and sisters through their own journeys.**

 **Thank you for listening."**

Under all the sudden cheering from both the people inside and outside, a faint sob could be heard coming from a short green haired boy in the waiting room.

* * *

"Sure managed to make their day, huh? Thought you'd forget to say little stars at least once, good job." Victória shouted at Eros after a long sip of water. A good amount of people from the outside had come enroll in the academy shortly after the class was over, and the combined noise of the crowd on the lower floor made chatting somewhat difficult.

"This is the academy where we are going to be staying for the rest of our careers. I had to give the people a good idea of what we are like." Eros replied with a big grin on his face, towel over his shoulder and ready to use one of the shower rooms specifically designated for the instructors. "Oh, by the way, someone sent you a package. I put it upstairs so you can focus on it better."

Victória mouthed a small thank you and headed to the storage area. Since they had just settled in the city, it was mostly empty, apart from a few old tatamis and wooden planks that would be used in later events. In the middle of the room laid a small metallic disk, with a red light blinking on its dark grey center.

The device lit up almost on cue as Victória sat down and settled her water bottle besides her. The figure of a small unidentified animal (" _a rat?_ " thought Victória) arose from it, the characteristic glow of the hologram faintly lighting up the rest of the dim room. It stayed immobile for a few seconds, blinking and sipping from its equally tiny cup of tea, before speaking up.

" _Good evening, Miss Machado! I apologize for not having an opportunity to introduce myself to you directly. I am Nezu, the principal of U.A. High."_

She blinked. _That_ was Nezu? She expected him to be an old man, maybe middle aged at best based on her mother's descriptions of him. Though she had to admit, his cutesy appearance helped her get over some of her initial nervousness of receiving a letter that would basically decide her whole future.

" _As you may know, the conditions of your exam were… not standard, one could say._ _Due to your late arrival in Japan, you didn't have to share your exam grounds with anyone, so we had to completely discard the rescue points system and the good sportsmanship bonuses. Speaking of a score, here is your final result in the physical test!"_

The projection held out a white card, with the number 70 written in the middle with a big font. _Was that good? Or was it seventy out of one hundred?_

" _Ah, you are probably asking yourself, is this a good score? And indeed it is! Just so you have a reference point, the best score on the regular practical exam was a 77. Pretty close!"_

 **Woah.**

 _"_ _However…"_

 **Oh no.**

" _We share a few concerns regarding your case. You showed us an excellent result while fighting the zero-points robot in the end of the exam, but your tactic – or lack of it – seemed to be based purely out of emotion, with no thought behind it."_

" _Moreover, there are a few problems with your academic curriculum as well. While the notes and activities your mother provided us have shown you have good capabilities and are dedicated to your studies, your knowledge seems to be behind of what the Japanese education system would consider adequate for a high school of such a high level."_

Hologram-Nezu paused to take another, painfully slow sip of his tea. The suspense was killing her.

 _"_ _After analyzing all that was provided to us, we have finally decided…"_

Nezu pulled out another card, this one with four simple letters printed in a shiny golden gradient.

 **Pass.**

" _Congratulations, Victória Machado! Welcome to our Hero Academy."_


	4. Lukewarm

**Author's notes: Hey, sorry for the false alarms. Had an issue with the formatting and panic deleted and reuploaded it several times. I hope you can see this since what I'm seeing when I try to open chapter 4 is just the first draft I deleted about an hour ago. Thanks for the functional website, fanfiction.**

* * *

Even though she had confirmed the location at least four times while waiting for the class to begin, she still had a feeling she just wasn't in the right place. Both metaphorically and literally, as the campus was massive enough and the map of the school that was sent to her via email was more than a little outdated.

But it said right there, both on her phone and on the small sign on the door: classroom building, fourth floor, class 1-A – The class that was apparently reserved for the best of the best. Those who did extra well on both the written and practical exam. She wondered if it was fair, after all, she hadn't done the written exam, and her second test wasn't the same as everyone else's. She wondered if she was secretly crushing someone's dream of getting into UA, taking their well deserved spot just because she had the status and timing to do so.

Though Nezu did tell her she was a special case. One of them, that is. Apparently, each of the classes, from general studies to hero course, was supposed to receive a foreign student. Who were them? She was kind of eager to meet them – maybe even more eager than meeting actual Japanese students. She hadn't done research on how they treat foreigners in a school environment, but she knew very well people are repulsed by or fear the unknown. The other foreigners were the most likely to relate and be understanding to her, since they were in the same situation. And after a previously bad experience at an American hero school, she had to be ready for anything that might happen. More mentally than physically, as social encounters were one of the few situations that she couldn't solve with a claw swipe or a well-timed kick.

She patiently waited until the clock on her phone hit 8:30 AM. Definitely later than other schools she had been in, but she hadn't been in many of them and she was by no means complaining about it. She stood up, ready to enter as soon as she heard the spoken cue… which she didn't know what it was.

" _Everyone please shut your mouths. You've already wasted ten seconds of our time and we still have things to do before officially starting."_ A man from inside the classroom spoke, already sounding emotionally exhausted even though this was the first class of the semester. _"Now let's get done with it already."_

Silence. Was _that_ her cue?

" _Yes, I'm talking to_ _ **you**_ _. I can hear you out there. Don't delay everyone's schedule even more than necessary."_

Well, question answered. She quickly straightened her back, put a look of confidence on her face and slid the classroom door open.

Immediately, two things caught her attention. One, was that the chitchat had suddenly stopped and all the students had suddenly turned their heads to face her – some looked interested, others unamused, and most minimally curious. The second thing that she noticed, however, was that the man to whom the tired voice belonged to, had shoulder length black hair and a poorly shaved beard, bags under his eyes, and was currently laying down on the ground inside a bright yellow sleeping bag.

"You know what to do. Or at least you should, I don't know if you foreigners can read something as complex as Nezu's emails." Victória honestly couldn't tell if the man was making fun of her or if the principal's grammar was as complex as he implied. Regardless, Japanese was one of the first languages she learned so she had no problem at all.

After entering the classroom and closing the door behind her, she walked to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk. Then she wrote her full name, both in katakana (the alphabet in Japanese used to write foreign words) and using the Latin alphabet, making sure to reverse the order of her first and last names as the Japanese did.

"My name is Machado Victória. I come from Portugal, but my mother and I used to travel a lot throughout the world, so this is the first time I am going to be properly studying in a school. It is a pleasure to meet you all. I hope we can get better acquainted soon." She then performed a short polite bow as she had been instructed to. The class remained in second for a few short seconds, before bursting into a variety of questions.

" _Is she really foreign? Her accent is too good!"_

" _What is she, a damn crocodile? Is she here to eat us all?"_

" _You ever been to America? Is it true they can carry guns and use their quirk everywhere without a license?"_

" _Do you have boobs under those scales?"_

Before she could even think about which questions to answer, the man silenced everyone again, somehow flopping onto his chair while still inside the sleeping back and landing in a sitting position.

"Oi, didn't I tell you we were already late on the schedule?" The room suddenly fell into silence again. "You can ask her all you want to know after the classes are over, I don't care. Machado, go sit by the empty table in the corner, and let's begin already."

"My name is Aizawa Shouta, and I'm going to be your homeroom teacher for the rest of your stay here. Now go put on your P.E. uniforms and head out to the courtyard. We're having a quirk apprehension test."

* * *

After listening to a somewhat long speech about how outdated the Japanese Ministry of Education was, and receiving an expulsion threat from Aizawa (which Victória wasn't falling for), the test finally began. The students were only supposed to do some standard physical exercises, with the difference that they were now allowed to use their quirks to boost the results – which would also be ranked.

The tests were… Maybe a bit too standard for Victória's own tastes. Even though it was a pretty hot day outside – which boosted her physical prowess due to her temperature-sensitive quirk – she couldn't really compete with the other students who for the most part had overly specialized quirks. 5 seconds in the fifty-meter dash wasn't all that bad. 65 kilos of grip strength was average compared to some of the other students. 2.3 meters on the standing long jump was not so good. She didn't count how many sidesteps she had done, but she managed to perform a little better than most in that one since it was an exercise many of the fighting academies she had been in did. 75 meters on the softball throw was _alright_.

The fight that almost broke out between the average looking green-haired boy and the egotistical maniac with the explosion quirk was entertaining, but she couldn't stop thinking about how painfully average she had performed in what was supposed to be such a simple test. Right in the middle of the ranking, which turned out to be pretty useless for their overall grade – fortunately. She wasn't utterly disappointed in herself and having an existential crisis like Bakugou apparently was, but she still couldn't help but feel that her 70 score on the hero test hadn't prepared her for that.

The school day ended shortly after that. She went back home walking alone, as she had to memorize the path herself so she didn't depend on taxis anymore. The massive skyscrapers looming over her, the quietness of the late afternoon and the fact that nobody had offered to walk back home with her, or even bothered talking to her after that short moment in class made her feel weird inside. Was it _jealousy_? No, couldn't be, she didn't care that much about what other people thought about her. _Loneliness_ , then? Perhaps. It was more of a general disappointment than anything – all the expectations she had managed to form in her short one week long hype period were all slowly deflating and making room for what UA would actually be like.

" _I'm being overdramatic. This won't stay like this forever, I'm sure we are going to have different activities in the near future. I shouldn't expect the school that uses_ _ **actual**_ _robots in their entrance exam test to be this disappointing."_ She thought to herself while she opened her apartment door, greeting her mother on her way back to her bedroom.

"Oh, hello there sweetie! How was your first day in the journey of being the best hero ever?" Glória asked after setting down a table in their large living room. Decorating the house was a slow yet rewarding job.

"I don't know. Lukewarm, I guess."


	5. Frigid

About a week had passed since the Quirk Apprehension Test, and Victória was _mostly_ over it.

One of the few expectations that she had that actually turned out to be true was receiving almost ungodly amounts of homework. Every single subject bombarded the students with loads and loads of paperwork, and Victória in special would receive and have an extra amount due to never having properly studied in a school and incidentally not learning some of the essential basics.

But it wasn't that big of a deal for Victória. Her mother had hired someone to teach in the academy in her place – short, old, and not quirkless at all Japanese man, but his reputation was apparently massive and he practically offered to work there for free (though Glória did insisted in paying him), so she had to accept. That, combined with the fact that the period for enrolling in extracurricular school clubs wouldn't be for at least a month (not that she considered joining any at the moment anyways) gave her a lot of extra time. More time than she needed to finish all the school assignments, in fact. Her mother turned half of the third floor of Little Stars into Victória's own training space, with the other half still serving as storage. Though with not much of a training routine to go on with besides hitting the punching bag, doing some repetitive endurance exercises and a few tips and tricks for training claw attacks she had found on the internet, it was more of a mindless past time than actually enhancing herself in a truly meaningful way.

In the following week, after a particularly difficult lesson about projectile physics, the current number one hero in the whole world All-Might himself casually entered through the door. "Like a normal person" – As he added. He obviously didn't have to introduce himself, so he went right to the announcement: that he was going to be their teacher for the subject of Foundational Heroics Studies, and that their first activity would begin shortly. It was combat training, a fact revealed by the small paper card with the word "BATTLE" written on it with shiny capital letters. Most of the students were excited to be taught by him – even Victória in a way – but the lack of a previous interest in hero work had left her with much less hype than the rest of the class.

All-Might also handed the students their new hero uniforms, which they were asked to send a design draft of along with their other official documents after receiving the official approval hologram.

Victória's wasn't anything special, prioritizing function over form. It consisted of: a helmet similar to a firefighter's, but with a more head-fitting (similar to a motorcycle helmet) and angular design that made her silhouette look a little bit like an actual reptile; a compression tank top under a flexible exercising jacket; some cargo pants, fingerless gloves and simple boots; and finally a pair of spiked armbands – the only accessory she had gotten. All of the clothes were colored black and insulated, so she could take the most warmth out of her environment as well as use the little heat her body could generate effectively.

After changing, the students headed to the Ground Beta, the replica city where the practical entrance exam took place. For Victória, it looked even bigger than it actually was, since her test was performed in a reduced area. The activity would take place inside one of the buildings, and All-Might soon gave the rules: the students would form pairs, each pair split into a "hero team" or "villain team". The villains had to guard a fake bomb that was located on the last floor of the building until the time limit was over, while the heroes had to simply have one of their team members touch the bomb.

They were randomly assigned to their pairs, but… Victória wasn't chosen. The paper with her name was in the box All-Might had brought, but it hadn't been selected – and since there was an odd number of students after her entrance in the class, she would have to stay alone for this exercise. All-Might looked nervously surprised by this fact as well, but regained his composure in the speed of sound and told her there would be a special dynamic involving her. _"Not something the self-proclaimed best superhero school should settle for,"_ She thought, _"but it's a solution, I guess."_

The first fight was between Midoriya and Uraraka versus Bakugou and Tenya. The rest of the students were led to a building about two blocks away from the testing area – watching the action in a room that had several monitors on the wall where various angles of the fights could be seen. Victória leaned against the wall, paying close attention to the strategies used by her classmates in their tests. After Bakugou alone had destroyed almost the whole building (and forcing the test area to be moved to a different one), not many of the other fights looked very interesting in comparison. Some of them were disappointingly short as well. Nevertheless, her time to practice would soon come.

" **Young Machado! Don't think I've forgotten about you!"** All-Might exclaimed, a few seconds in the middle of a sentence where he was going to congratulate everyone for having done their tests. **"After analyzing the possibilities, the administration team and I have decided that… You will fight a student that finished their task with barely any effort, in a one-versus-one trial"**

All-Might briefly looked around the room before heroically pointing to Shouto Todoroki, the half-cold half-hot quirk user that had singlehandedly overpowered his adversaries without breaking a sweat. And he would be the villain this time. Another exam where she would be rated differently than the other students? She was starting to get used to it at that point, and not in a good way.

Both of them left the control room and walked to the trial building, with Todoroki going up to the last floor to stand near the bomb. As soon as the alarm signaled the beginning of the test, before Victória could even take a single step inside the building, a thick layer of ice suddenly encased everything. Interior and exterior. _"Someone did his research, huh? Bastard."_

Victória listed her options. She could try to climb to the last floor using her claws, but the ice would probably have sapped all of her strength by then. She could try to lure him to the first floor, but considering his equally cold personality, he probably wouldn't even budge. Or she could give up, since the battle was already lost. She couldn't use her extensive array of fighting moves on **ice**.

 _Or could she?_

All-Might and whoever remained in the control room were starting to think she had given up and prepared to leave, when a loud cry was heard. Victória tightened her jacket, cleared the hardened plastic that made up her helmet's visor and stomped the ground with all the heat she had built in while thinking. It made a shockwave so big that it broke all the ice from the first floor, and she took the opportunity to keep on going. Todoroki didn't just accept that, however, he kept re-freezing the building every time he heard the noise of ice being broken, barely moving an inch. It had become a battle of endurance.

A battle Victória would have to finish quickly. Even though she had managed to successfully break the thick layers of ice the first five or so times it was reapplied, the cold was getting to her. Slowly draining her energy and logical thinking abilities and dramatically halting her physical strength. Once she had climbed the last floor stair, she was exhausted. Her stomp did barely anything to the large crystalline structures all around her anymore, and her vision was getting foggier due to the hypothermia. But there he was! She just had to make a beeline to him.

Victória expected the sight of her opponent to awake some last resort strength inside herself, but it didn't. She slowly walked, _limped_ towards Todoroki, while the former simply watched with a painfully neutral expression on his face, almost as if he was feeling _pity_. She only had enough strength to leave a faint claw mark on the cold side of his face before collapsing to the ground, not being able to survive the low temperatures even with her uniform on.

" **Bastard!"**

* * *

Victória suddenly jolted awake as the warm compress was placed onto her head. It took her a few seconds to register that she wasn't in the trial building anymore, but alone in the nurse's office with a very unamused nurse currently looking at her. Victória expected her to say something to her – maybe a bit of advice, or even just plain scolding – but the old woman remained painfully silent for an uncomfortably long minute.

"You should rest a little. You can go home after about ten or so minutes, All-Might will give you your results next class." She finally said, before resuming on whatever job she had been doing before Victória got carried to her room.

Not many people visited her. Some of the girls just passed in front of the door and stared at her for a few seconds. Todoroki himself stood there for a short time, making the best "I definitely have feelings" expression he could before leaving as well. And all Victória could do was stare back. She didn't know what to say – and there wasn't much she could say.

It was just another failure.


	6. Wannabe heroine

The Unforeseen Simulation joint. A facility that is affiliated and managed by the U.A. High School, supposedly built by a famous Pro Hero. It's located a few miles away from the school itself, although it is still considered part of the campus. The spherical structure towes over nearby trees and power lines, and even from the outside it was possible to see it contained something equally as massive in its interior.

Class 1-A, accompanied by their homeroom teacher Aizawa Shouta, headed there as part of their Foundational Heroics Studies class – which was taught by All-Might (who would apparently arrive later). The complex wasn't that far away from U.A., but the school still called a bus to take them there. Victória would have preferred if they simply walked there. It would have given her some time to absorb the warmth of that nice sunny day, as well as get a better look of the environment around her. The facility was right in the middle of the road between Musutafu and Hosu, the neighboring city she was told was famous for its concentration of and uniqueness of the villains. A lot of the hero agencies were also located there, and if she was to choose one of them, she could pretend to jog there every day instead of renting an apartment.

As the students got closer to the USJ, it was possible to see a large figure at the entrance waving at them. They were wearing a sort of astronaut suit, although the helmet part was totally black except for two white spots Victória assumed were representing their eyes. They took them inside, and the interior of the building revealed to be equally as impressive as its size: there were seven different areas, as well as a central plaza in the middle. Each area was themed after different environmental hazards. The hero – who was called Thirteen – explained that the students were to each choose a particular area to train on, based on the strengths and weaknesses of their quirks. Victória could barely see anything from behind the row of big and unnecessarily flashy hero costume parts, but the small glimpse she took of a kind of city replica that seemed to be burning was all she needed to make her decision.

Aizawa's explanation was interrupted by the lights of the complex dimming, followed by a surprised gasp by the students. As she walked her way around the crowd, Victória could see a dark spot in front of the fountain on the central plaza. It expanded rapidly, making nearby electronic falter, before it was big enough so that dozens and dozens of people could come out of it. They all wore different costumes, some simplistic, others clearly meant to intimidate. Aizawa put his goggles on and motioned for the students to step back and take cover. _"Was this not a planned scenario?"_ Victória thought. _"Are those real intruders? Villains?"_

Aizawa suddenly dashed forward, jumping from the entrance's stairway and heading straight to the group of villains. Demonstrating his incredible fighting abilities, he took multiple of them at a time, using the scarf-like fibers around his neck and his Quirk Erasing ability to quickly and efficiently end each assault.

Thirteen and the students retreated to the entrance hall, but another portal opened right in front of the exit door. It condensed into a tall amorphous blob of some kind of dark matter, with two yellow spots glowing on the top. It presented himself as one of the members of an organization called the League of Villains, and revealed their actual plan: to intercept and kill All-Might, who fortunately (or unfortunately for the students) couldn't come due to being busy fighting villains. Shortly before he could finish his speech, however, Bakugou and Kirishima jumped to the front of the crowd and tried striking him with their quirks. After the cloud of smoke and dust settled, it was possible to see that some of the portal material had vanished, revealing a humanoid body with a strange metal apparatus on the neck, where the blob spewed out of. He didn't seem injured at all by the attacks.

The villain's head suddenly expanded again, trapping them in a sort of dome as students started being pulled and pushed around by a strong invisible force. Victória didn't have time to hold onto anything before she started rising towards the upper wall of the dark dome.

* * *

 **Splat!**

Victória shielded her fall with her arms, but it still hurt her a little. She realized her eyes were closed, and when she opened them again, she noticed she was in the middle of a city. Though it didn't really look like any of the fake cities present inside the USJ or U.A. Mainly because there were actual people walking around and doing their everyday jobs. She quickly got up before anyone could see her laying around on the concrete sidewalk and approached a friendly-looking police officer.

"Excuse me sir," Victória began, trying to steady her own breath. She thought it would sound pretty suspicious for the officer if she just bluntly asked for their current location, so she made up some fake context. "I'm a foreigner, and I think I took the wrong bus. I can't read a lot of kanji, could you tell me what the name of this city is?"

"Ah, of course! We are in the city of Hosu." The officer smiled, crouching down a bit so he could make direct eye contact with her. _Rude._

"Ah, I'm supposed to be on Musutafu. Could you tell me which direction that is?"

"Sure!" He pointed to the south of where they were. "Would you like me to call a taxi for you?"

"No, thank you. I'm going to call my mother." She gave him a small bow of politeness, then walked towards the south.

What was she going to do about the villain invasion? She couldn't just go back in there and try to take out some villains – she barely was able to hold her own against her fellow classmates. She couldn't just go back home either. She decided to head towards the school and tell the staff what was happening. Judging by their importance in town, U.A. would probably contact a few pro heroes to take care of the job. It was likely that a student or even Thirteen themself had already phoned the school, but she wanted to at least _make it look_ like she helped instead of just running away.

Victória was back in Musutafu in about ten minutes, making use of her quirk to run as fast as she could. She suddenly felt a rumble, and then took out her phone she had secretly brought with her in one of the back pockets of her cargo pants despite it being against the rules. There was a single test message, one that made her stop right in her tracks and read it at least five times over. It was from Stephen, one of the teachers of Little Stars.

" _help u"_

" _Help us?"_ What could he possibly mean with that? Did villains attack the city as well? The scariest part was that the text wasn't finished, meaning something had interrupted Stephen in the middle of writing. Her mind automatically jumped to the worst conclusion possible as she took an U-turn to head towards the fighting academy.

The scene that unfolded in front of Victória as she arrived had quite a lot to unpack.

There was a small crowd gathered around the entrance of the building, standing a few feet away even though there was no police officer or other authority figure ordering them to do so. The glass panes of the first floor were broken, and shards laid on the floor. There was a shirtless, balding man slowly walking into the building through the place where the glass was supposed to be. Eros and Glória were inside, keeping their stance immobile even as blades somehow sprung out from the unknown man's forearms, about two inches long and sharp-looking. Stephen was laying down on his back in front of the entrance door, unmoving body weakly clutching the outdated cellphone with one hand while the other rested atop his stomach.

 _His throat cut open and still bleeding, his eyes wide open – expecting a low attack that never came._

A lot of things ran through Victória's mind, but the one that spoke the loudest was something said by their teacher Aizawa during the bus trip, after some random student had asked a question about a (oh the irony) hypothetical self-defense villain attack scenario.

"Even if it is an emergency, quirks cannot be used for self-defense unless you have a license or permission from a legal guardian."

There was not much Victória could do, since her quirk was a passive mutant-type one, but she took off her jacket just in case, and sheathed her claws. She felt some warmth leaving her as she now stood with only the tank top covering her upper body, but she was still good enough to fight.

"...Do you really think Quirkless people can be good superheroes? Look around you, how many came to your aid?" The bald man teased both of the teachers, his disgusting high-pitched voice reflecting his overconfidence. "I bet you just wanna scam those fool for their money, don't you?! Do you even know how to t- **Oof!** "

He turned around briefly only to be interrupted by Victória, who dashed towards him and punched him in the stomach. He was pushed backwards by the force and lost his balance, shrieking as he fell onto a pile of glass shards. His back was now bleeding, but he still got up and faced Victória with a sickening smile. Victória looked inside the academy in search of Eros and her Mother. They both gave her a slight nod as their gazes met, stepping back to increase the size of their impromptu arena.

"What are you, a wannabe hero? Scram, I am the real hero here! I'm saving all those poor people from wasting their money!" He waved his arm at Victória, but she didn't budge from her fighting stance. "Well, I guess I can take care of you before I destroy this shitty place!"

The man ran towards her and tried to slash her horizontally using his right arm, but her reflexes were fast enough so that she could duck under it and elbow his crotch. That made him bend forward and clutch the area, and she took the opportunity to hit his nose with her knee. He recoiled, not before managing to land a cut across her shin. The thick fiber of the cargo pants and the fact that it was covered in scales helped diminish the impact, but it still caused her to bleed (although she didn't notice because of her current high adrenaline levels). It was difficult use any of the restraining maneuvers she knew because of the blades on his arms, so she decided the best choice was to incapacitate him.

Now with a busted lower lip, the man realized he wasn't going to succeed at close combat and fetched a large enough shard of glass to throw at her. She guarded right on time so that it stuck to her forearm, not harming her scaleless face. She quickly plucked it out and ran for another strike, but before she could reach him, his body started shaking frantically. He soon dropped to the ground, revealing a police officer holding the Taser that had just incapacitated her target.

"You too! Put your hands right up if you don't want to end like him!"

* * *

"So, recalling what you just told me: when you were headed for the exit, a villain opened a portal out of nowhere and transported you to the middle of Hosu. Then, you received a message from one of the victims, and ran there to help?"

"Yes." Victória had her hands on the table, her bruises having been bandage by one of the officer after she arrived at the police station. She wanted to properly talk to her mom and Eros, but she had to be interrogated for "disturbing the order" and because she was in the USJ before the whole conflict happened.

"Are you aware that quirk usage without a permit is illegal in this country?" The officer interrogating her had the head of a dog – a corgi, to be precise. Victória found it somewhat funny.

"Sir, as you can see in my file, there is no way I can _stop_ using my quirk." She protested, extending a claw from her index finger and tapping on the table a few times. "I took off my quirk-enhancing jacket before the fight began, and I didn't use my claws to hurt him. You can check his body, the only cuts he suffered were due to falling onto glass."

"I see…" The officer looked at his notes. His expression was conflicted, or maybe it was just because his dog face wasn't able to express very complex human emotions. "Well, you still made him bleed and gave him light bruises, so I'm going to have to punish you in some way."

 _Silence._

"But, to be honest, you did act to defend those people, and there were no heroes in the area at the moment since all of them were headed to the USJ because of the villain ambush. Which is way more important than a simple street fight." He shrugged, relaxing and patting her shoulder while giving her what she supposed was a smile. "I'm going to let you go home with just a warning today, but next time remember to call the police. We can't do much in terms of fighting villains, but we can help with restraining them and also give permission in case using your quirk was the only way. Not that we would, since you're a minor, but we could."

Victória nodded politely and turned away to go home, before being interrupted by the corgi officer one last time.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Good job out there, **hero.** "

* * *

 **Author's notes: Hey! So I tried (key word being tried) making this chapter a little longer because I won't be able to write a lot this week. A lot of exams and school assignments are due, so I gotta focus on that.**

 **But I'd like to take the opportunity to hear a little from you guys! I've got the outline for the beginning of the Sports Festival arc sketched out, but I plan on doing some chapters in between to calm down the pace of the story a little. So, I ask, what kind of scenarios do you guys want to see? Victória making some friends? Meeting foreigner students? Something about her backstory? You decide! I'm gonna look through your ideas and write the ones I find most important for the current moment in the story.**

 **See you soon, have a nice week!**


	7. Simple as that

**Author's notes: happy Mother's day everyone! This chapter was originally intended to be posted yesterday, but I couldn't edit it in time because of some personal issues. I'm still having them, so next chapter might come a little late as well.**

 **But hey, at least it's finally here, and the theme does fit Mother's day pretty well! I hope you are having a nice day today, and if not, consider me your new mom.**

 **(Also changed the summary to a quote because I wasn't very happy with the original one.)**

* * *

Empty.

About a week had passed since Victória's fight with the blade-armed villain, and her brain had somehow fully removed any emotions attached to that encounter and the events before it. She could remember exactly where her fist hit; how she was afraid of using too much force so the guy didn't go flying off into someone in the crowd; and how angry she was _afterwards_ , due to not being able to talk to her mom as soon as it was over. But of the League of Villains ambush and how exactly she felt after witnessing such a scene in front of Little Stars, she had no recollection.

Maybe that was a good thing? She imagined how she could have been feeling earlier that day. Frustrated that she hadn't managed to achieve anything meaningful since her trip to Japan? Angry because of the speech the villain gave before being beaten by her? Maybe even a little scared of not being able to return home when the black void first opened at the plaza. But there was nothing. Not even the usual intrusive thoughts and mind-static that accompanied her daily life. It was just her and the environment around her, which she could now place an unusual amount of focus onto. It felt odd at first, but…

After receiving back her first assignment with a grade of 9/10, she was starting to accept it.

Speaking of good grades, Victória had quite the surprise when, earlier that week, she received a message from one of the top students in her class.

 **[Unknown Number] said:**

 **Hello Machado. I am sorry I have not been able to personally introduce myself to you. My name is Yaoyorozu Momo, and I am one of your fellow class 1-A classmates. The one at seat number 20, to be precise.**

 **I was watching the news this morning for once (since classes were cancelled for a security checkup in U.A. as you probably are aware of) and I just so happened to take a glance at you fighting that villain in front of the Little Stars Fighting Academy last week.**

 **I would like to formally apologize. I have personally badmouthed you in my friend circle, thinking you had ran away from the USJ incident. If you have gotten glared at or insulted in this meantime, it is all my fault and I promise to clarify everything to the rest of our class as soon as I'm able to.**

 **As an additional proposal, I would like to invite you to a little get-together with the rest of the girls and me, so we can get properly acquainted and throw aside old misconceptions we had about each other. It is totally understandable if you do not wish to join us, after all we caused quite a lot of trouble to your social life. It will be happening this weekend, at three in the afternoon at the Yaoyorozu Estate. I hope we can become friends regardless of your decision.**

 _ **[Unknown Number] sent you an address!**_

Three things shocked Victória about that text. One, was that the girl wrote like a company CEO instead of a high school student. Second, she didn't expect the cause of her recent loneliness at U.A. to be caused by just _one_ girl. And third, the message was in perfect Portuguese. Did she not know she was able to speak Japanese at all, or was she trying to appeal to Victória by writing in her mother language? She made sure to reply in proper Japanese, while still trying to give off a sort "you just ruined my whole social life but whatever you say" vibe.

 **[Vic] said:**

 **Sure I guess**

Ever since the whole incident at Little Stars, Glória had been reluctant to let Victória go to places on her own. Not because she thought her daughter was incapable of defending herself – after all, she proved she was more than capable of doing it by guarding her _and_ Eros from the threat that was the villain.

No, Glória was afraid of her own safety. Sure, she had more technique and experience than Victória, and Pro Heroes would certainly be called next time something bad happened, but was she truly safe in a society that made quirkless people feel vulnerable and defenseless everyday? That was against her teachings as Glória the martial arts expert, but it was what she felt as Glória the **mother**. One day her daughter wouldn't be there to protect her anymore. Nor would Eros, or anyone else. She would have to rely on her own skill and a fair bit of luck – and that's what terrified her the most.

" _But there is nothing to worry about at the moment."_ Glória thought as she saw her daughter walk away and make her own future. _"If she can do it, then so can I. I have to be her inspiration – her_ _ **sun**_ _."_

Yaoyorozu really wasn't kidding when she said _Estate_. That place was huge, almost the size of the classroom building at U.A.! There was even a butler waiting for Victória by the gate! He simply bowed politely and proceeded to open it for her, his old joints cracking loud enough as he did so that they could almost serve the same purpose as a doorbell. "Young Mistress Yaoyorozu awaits you in the uppermost bedroom. Please take this to guide you."

Victória had to admit she got pretty amused when the butler handed her a _goddamn_ map of the mansion. Whoever this girl was, she was either snobby as hell or very attentive of her guests, or possibly both. She hoped it was just the latter as she made her way into the enormous building. The architecture looked more European than Japanese, with no sliding doors or any wooden structures in sight but counting with a variety of furniture made out of marble. The place was impressive both horizontally and vertically, as Victória counted at least three sets of stairs until she reached the top. There were exactly five rooms in sight: two bathrooms, a storage-like room she assumed was the attic, a small passage that granted access to the roof and a closed door that had a sign with "Momo" written on it with bright pink marker. **Bingo**.

The course of events that followed happened in a matter of seconds.

Victória opened the door and took a few steps inside the pitch-black room. The door was then suddenly closed behind her, and she suddenly felt a pair of hands grasping her shoulders. Her instincts – fueled by her high body heat due to the long stairway ascent – made her brain interpret that as a threat, and so she proceeded to grab the unknown person's arm and throw them over her shoulder as a defensive maneuver, making them hit the floor with a loud thud.

"Surpris- **Ah!** "

Lights now on, Victória could now see she made a _huge_ mistake. Inside the room, there was a table set with a variety of snacks and drinks. Four girls and a floating pair of gloves where staring at her with wide eyes and mortified faces. The person who had "assaulted" her looked equally as surprised, her pure yellow eyes and black sclera shooting up to meet Victória's equally confused gaze.

"Uh… I'm… I can…"

Luckily, the pink-skinned girl on the floor started giggling, and everyone else in the room except Victória followed her lead. She dusted her clothes with her hands as she got up, scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Nah, it's fine, I should have listened to **Yaomomo** when she warned me you were like crazy into martial arts and stuff." Victória's muscles relaxed seeing her wide comforting smile. "Anyways, as I was saying, surprise! We got a little party together for you, to make up for your troubles. I'm Mina Ashido, by the way!"

Soon enough, it started to feel like they had been friends for a very long time. Each of the girls, with their own unique quirks (ha) and characteristics, quickly accepted Victória into their friend group. They were soon eating together, laughing together and even throwing some gossip around about the boys in their class. Victória couldn't relate a lot to the cheesy descriptions and love-struck giggles for _reasons_ , but she tried her best to contribute to the subject.

She soon found herself in the middle of a pile of cushions, with the other girls all around her looking at her while she added each of their phone numbers into her contact list. She locked her phone as she was done, shooting a glance at Yaoyorozu – the unofficial "leader" of the group – who answered it with a small smile.

"Well, I think you're caught up with most of the school news now! And, forgive our rudeness in not asking about you first, but could you tell us more about yourself?" She asked, her hair now running free along her back instead of being tied together in a ponytail as usual.

"Yeah! Like where do you come from and stuff!" Mina chimed.

"Your student profile says you were born in Portugal, _kero_. Is that so?" Asui complemented, and suddenly all the eyes were on Victória again. It wasn't like she wasn't used to that – after all, depending on the season, she had to teach up to a dozen students at the same time in her mother's academy – but the attention combined with the subject in question made her cheeks flush ever so slightly.

"Well, it's… A little more complicated than that. I don't really know exactly where I was born." Victória's answer was met with half a dozen _"eh?!"_ from her classmates. Tooru, the invisible girl, was the first to speak up about it.

"What do you mean? Did your mom not have a GPS when she gave birth to you or something? Or were you… _Adopted?_ " The last word was spoken with a bit of an apologetic tone, as if Tooru was avoiding the possibility of that being the case.

"The latter, yeah. It's kind of a long story, so you might want to get comfortable while you listen." Victória herself leaned back against the pile of cushions, clearing her throat. "So, my mom – the adoptive one – was on vacation one day, when…"

A lot of the European landscapes where just like movies made them out to be: vast lush fields, with some small forests sprinkled here and there, plus a thin sheet of snow depending on the season. The trail Glória was following was in the middle of one of those forests. It was not dense enough to confuse and disorient travelers, but it had enough trees per square meter to deserve to be classified as one. There was no clear path to take, as all the ground untouched, but Eros knew the way. He had insisted to his boss that he'd be the woman's guide on her trip through the mild sceneries that existed somewhere in between Portugal and Spain. He had overheard Glória talking about how successful her fighting academy for quirkless people was getting, and it was like all his childhood hopes and dreams had emerged from their hiding place to guide him towards that woman.

"The fruit trees around here are pretty much untouched by human influence, so you may grab a few apples if you desire. I would recommend you only start eating them at our next stop, though. You might need to check for bugs and wash them." The large man said, walking in the front with his arms crossed over his chest. Glória wasted no time, enthusiastically climbing on every tree she saw and stuffing a few dozen apples into her backpack with a goofy smile plastered onto her face.

The path ahead opened into a small clearing, where the rays of the late afternoon sun could penetrate through the leaves and shine onto berry bushes and other small species of plants that were competing for light among the wooden giants. The concentration of trees had diminished considerably at that point, so it was possible to see the field that hosted the forest from every direction except north (which was where they were going towards). There was nothing too interesting to see except a few wild herbivores and an abandoned-looking wooden hut to the east. It caught Glória's attention, but since there was still a long way to go, she didn't do anything about it at the moment.

The forest got thinner as they walked along, and within ten minutes of walking there were no more trees surrounding them. Instead, they found themselves at the edge of a shallow river where a handful of docile animals drank water and socialized with their groups. They walked slowly enough so that they didn't disturb the critters while they filled their water bottles with the pristine liquid. That is, until Eros' walkie-talkie suddenly made a loud buzzing noise, making every animal in a twenty-meter radius run and alerting the man that someone was trying to communicate with him.

" **Turn around, there's another fire ahead and it's impossible to go around this time. Give her a few of the apples if she bitches about it too much, just don't give her a goddamn refund. My salary can't afford another one. Over."**

"She is listening, Emilio. **Over**." Eros strapped the device back onto his utility belt and turned to face Glória. "You heard the idiot in the machine. Our journey is over for now."

They walked back through the forest path, and Glória had almost forgotten about the house that had caught her interest before a loud **bang** was heard coming from it. They looked at each other for a moment, before another bang turned their attention to the house on their left. The windows of the building had the curtains down, and the chimney that used to every so often released puffs of aromatic smoke wasn't giving off any signals that there was someone inside, yet someone could be very clearly heard knocking against the door from the inside.

Despite Eros' mild stubbornness that it was just one of his co-workers playing a prank on them, Glória went ahead and walked towards the entrance. Just as she opened the door, a baby came crawling towards her. Its skin looked deformed and discolored, but upon picking the infant up she could see that those were actually scales, covering the baby's whole body up until half of its chin. She also had bright red hair – which Glória thought might have been dyed before she realized they were in the _middle of nowhere_.

"What the…? Eros, come here! There's more of them!"

As both adults entered the house – Glória now holding the child in her arms – they were shocked to find that it was packed with at least a dozen small babies. Each of them had something off in their appearance, like horns, wings, mismatched eye colors and even some with a few extra limbs – the telltale sign of people with a mutant-type quirk. What was more shocking was that there was a single adult in the middle of the living room, cold and immobile. Her eyelids were down, coated by the dried up blood that most likely came from the small cylindrical hole on her forehead. Her red hair – the same hue as the baby Glória had in her arms – was tied into a bun, and the woman still had a comforting smile in her face. Her arms were resting onto her lap, in a melancholic position that suggested she was cradling one of the infants as she passed away. There didn't seem to be any damage to the house, except for a hole in the window that was facing the dead woman, as well as a cavity in the wall behind her where the likely murder weapon – a bullet – was lodged into.

The child Glória was holding frowned as she saw the woman, pointing at her while she looked up at Glória and babbled incoherently. Some of the other kids where at her feet doing the same thing, probably wondering in their little yet-to-develop minds why their caregiver was taking so long to wake up from her afternoon nap.

"…Hey, Eros? What does the company policy say about murder mysteries and adoption?"

The room at the Yaoyorozu Estate was deadly quiet as the story came to an end. Some of the girls were almost tearing up, others deeply surprised at the unusual chain of events, and Asui still had her characteristic neutral frog-like expression as always.

"Woah," Jirou, the girl whose earlobes where shaped like earphone jacks due to her quirk, was the first to speak up, "That's messed up."

"Was that your biological-" Yaoyorozu started, but was interrupted by Victória's nods.

"Yeah. Dunno where my dad is, but I suppose he's got the same luck. Never found out who did it." She answered all the possible questions she thought they might ask, looking at the melancholic faces all around her. "It's okay though, I'm not too bothered by it anymore. I'm happy where I am right now."

"Yeah, that's right!" Everyone suddenly turned to face Uraraka, who had apparently finished wiping the tears off her face and pumped a fist in the air. "What matters is that you're here now, and that you do your best everyday! That's the spirit of _**plus ultra**_ , right?"

The room seemed to regain its bright mood again after that, the tension from Victória's origin story dissolving quickly as if Mina had used some of her acid on it. They talked more about each other's hero costumes, helped Victória with some subjects she was struggling with, and eventually each of the girls (except Yaoyorozu of course) headed back towards their own homes.

Victória hugged her mother extra tightly as she finally reached her own apartment, which got a curious chuckle out of the middle-aged woman. They talked about Victória's day during dinner, as well as discussing on what to do about the future of Little Stars. Or rather, tried to do so.

"I'm… Not sure if I'm ready to let Stephen go yet. I mean, the public funeral ceremony is next week and all that but… Hey, don't type on your phone while I'm talking to you about important subjects!" She gently swatted at Victória's wrist, luckily not destabilizing her grip on the smartphone.

"Sorry! I'm just talking to one of the girls from earlier today. Gotta practice my informal Japanese too, mom."

"Ooh, not paying attention to me to talk to a girl? Have you found your next crush, sweetie? Don't be afraid to go all out on this one, we're not gonna travel to another country and leave both of you heartbroken for a month this time around."

"Too soon, mom. Too soon." She rolled her eyes and gently shoved her face away. "I didn't really have any proper friend from here until this morning, cut me some slack."

"Well, I'm gonna let you continue your little talk and we can discuss the less important matters tomorrow, in that case." Glória teased once again, getting up to head towards her room. "Don't stay up too late, and remember to put a more modest shirt on if you send any pictures of yourself!"

Victória cringed at that last bit and headed straight to her own room after washing the dishes, turning the heater on and getting under the covers. It didn't take long until the message notification popped on her phone again. She then proceeded to ignore her mother's advice and stayed up until well past midnight.

 **[Uraraka] said:**

 **Ah, I'm sorry I made you stay up this late!** **（＾。＾；）**

 **I think my own mom is starting to worry about me at this point…**

 **[Vic] said:**

 **It's good, it's good**

 **I think we should both head out actually**

 **Only six hours until we have class tomorrow**

… **Today.**

 **[Uraraka]: said**

 **Yeah! We're both going to be too exhausted for today's physical class if we continue like this…**

 **I've had a lot of fun today though! I'm sorry I kind of avoided you earlier this week…**

 **But that's the past now, right?**

 **I'm going to make it up to you eventually. Just not today, hehe~!**

 **Nighty!**

Victória was ready to wish her friend a good night as well, when she received one final message.

 **[Uraraka] said:**

 **Oh, also…**

 _ **[Uraraka] sent a picture!**_

 **Isn't the moon pretty today?**

"Yeah, it really is."


	8. Warmth

**Author's note: It's finally here! This chapter took me longer than it should have, and this time I have no excuse for it. Props to my friend Seth for helping me edit it!**

 **Also the old summary format is back cause the quote thing wasn't really working for me. May get changed again in the future.**

* * *

"A Foreigner Integration Ceremony?"

Victória had stopped in the middle of one of the hallways to look at the bulletin board, the round and vibrant Latin letters on the poster easily catching her attention. It had already been almost a month since classes had begun, so why throw one _now?_

Sure, Victória wasn't very well acquainted with a lot of people outside her class, and she hadn't met any of the other foreigners yet, but that sounded like the kind of event that was supposed to happen in the _first day_ of classes or at least in the first week. She had heard the U.A. staff had rushed to quickly throw together a foreigner program instead of carefully planning things, and after so many little "coincidences" like this, she was almost sure that rumor was true. _"Best super hero school my ass."_

"Oh, indeed! I have been informed that this has never happened before in the history of U.A. I wonder why they are only _just now_ opening a foreigner program. The school has been popular for almost a decade…" Yaoyorozu slowly abandoned the sentence to focus on her own thoughts. They had been hanging out together frequently since the little "surprise party." Victória guessed that it was because she still felt guilty for making one week of her life slightly more miserable, which wasn't such a bad thing now that she could look at it in hindsight.

The Japanese girl had already taken Victória on a tour through many places in Musutafu, including a variety of shops, restaurants and even some gyms she used to frequent during her homeschooling period. The one Victória got the most attached with was Uraraka, whose sweet and bubbly personality stuck with her. She and the rest of the girls in 1-A had occupied most of her free time with regular teenager activities, for good or for bad.

On one hand, she was finally living the life she wanted! No more motion sickness once a week due to frequent traveling by ship, no more having to say goodbye to friends she'd made in other countries, and no more spending most of her time with only older adults and a few other training-obsessed teenagers who requested private classes with her just so they could try to show (and fail) how better they were than her.

But on the other hand, Victória felt like she was going through something very important. Even though a good amount of time had passed since Stephen's funeral and the hiring of a new teacher for the academy, it felt like Glória was still not over it. And with her daughter out there and having no Japanese friends herself on top of that, she would have to stay extra time at Little Stars, which would only force her to ponder and overthink the issue further. Eros was doing the best he could to help her, though even he couldn't dedicate his whole free time to Glória, as he had his own personal life and issues to deal with.

It was a difficult set of decisions to make, and Victória was casually ignoring each and every one of them by using the "my grades aren't going so well" excuse to stay at U.A. when she was asked to choose between spending her time with either her mother or her friends. Not the healthiest solution, but in her eyes it was better than making the "wrong" choice.

And her extra time spent at school also led to some rather unique encounters.

"See you tomorrow! I'm going to send you a message so we can arrange a meeting for the duo activity!" Uraraka smiled and headed in the opposite direction from Victória, who waved at her and waited until she was out of her view to continue forwards. She really enjoyed spending time with Uraraka, and wished the girl wasn't so obsessed with that boy Midoriya. The attraction was mutual, but… Well, Victória didn't really have any excuses, she was just plain jealous. But she wasn't going to selfishly interfere in their relationship, she was raised better than that.

Walking through the hallways of the classroom buildings one day, Victória stumbled upon a peculiar scene. As she passed in front of one of the Support Department's workshops, someone bumped into her on their way out. He was a teenager a fair bit taller than her, standing at approximately 5'8". He had dark skin, a shaved head and dark brown eyes, and was currently holding another student who looked like he regretted something immensely. The boy's eyes were suddenly drawn towards Victória, and his smile widened once he realized she was probably not Japanese just like him.

"Hey! You won't guess what just happened! Finally caught one of these dudes being racist on video! And right after the class about building hidden cameras, can you believe that?" He let out a hearty laugh, almost masking the fact that he was talking about a serious issue. He turned to look back at the student he was holding, changing his speech from English to perfectly fluent Japanese. " _Are you sure you know how to use transistors? I heard you don't really have machines from the country you come from?_ Bro it's the Twenty-Second century, give me a break!"

"Um, should I call a teacher?" Victória answered almost immediately, not as surprised as she should have been by the scenario. After having witnessed and almost getting hit by multiple explosions coming from the workshops in her short stay at U.A., someone being accused of racism was not one of the things that surprised her anymore.

"Nah, I'm good. I think this guy learned his lesson already. I'm gonna submit the video to the staff anyways, not like little racist Keisuke over here can get away from me, oh no." With that, he released the Japanese student, who proceeded to slowly make his way back into the workshop. "Tough peers, but that Hatsume girl makes the whole thing worth it. Anyways, you're here because of the foreigner program too, right? I'm Omar, pleased to meet you!"

"Victória." She nodded, flashing a small smile. About time she got to meet some other foreigners. "I'm sorry you're having a bad time dealing with your classmates."

"Like I said, I'm good. Even if they do get out unpunished, I still have the skills to do better than them in school activities. " He laughed again. "Overconfidence is the quickest path to defeat, but I kinda deserve to have some of it after the staff stuck me with those guys for the rest of my stay at U.A. You in need of some hero equipment? Maybe something to file down those finger daggers of yours?"

"Not at the moment, thank you, but I will keep you in my mind in case I ever need to get some gadgets." She nodded. "Are you going to the ceremony they're preparing for us? It's Friday, I think."

"Yeah, of course! Kinda upset that they decided to only tell us how it works when the time arrives, but I guess it's nothing to really worry about." Omar shrugged, taking out his protection goggles from one of his apron pockets and putting them on with a smile. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to get another perfect grade."

Victória waved at him and watched as he made his way back into the classroom without dropping his smile. _Peculiar fellow, but good hearted._ She was glad to be in good terms with him.

* * *

"…As Japan delves into a new economical era, the educational sector of the country has to also innovate its setting to properly prepare the young for the new reality of the word. If we do our duty right, it will become clear that…"

Victória zoned out of Nezu's speech for what might have been the seventh time that evening. The long red dress her mother picked for her was making her kind of self-conscious, but it was an obligation as this was considered a formal event. Many of the girls were wearing similar – no, even fancier dresses, and Omar himself was wearing a particularly classy purple tuxedo that made him look like a movie star.

"Hey, when does this start again? They said the ceremony would only last only about two hours, and this talk has been going on for like, one and a half! I'm gonna miss my daily livestream like this! My viewers are gonna be so mad at me…" He pouted, slumping a little more on the chair he had been assigned to. It was a good thing they were backstage, or else Victória would have probably slipped and made him fix his posture due to being used to do that when training with younger kids at Little Stars.

"Patience. Also, you stream?" Victória asked curiously, before shaking her head. "Actually, that's not relevant right now. Just tell them this is an important event or something, I know you brought your phone with you."

Omar was about to ask how she knew about that when Nezu seemed to pause for a moment and clear his throat.

"But alas, it seems like I have gone overboard with the whole motivational speech thing. Without further ado, let us start this ceremony! Everyone, take your places."

Victória looked around and took her place in the line of foreign students as they made their way through the tight passage. Walking through the exit, she could see that a similar line composed of Japanese students – the class representatives, to be more precise – arrived onto the stage as well through a door on the opposite direction. Each of them were holding a sign with the name of one of the foreign students written on it. Both lines stood side to side, turning to look at the audience and bowing politely. Nezu said another command, and the line split again, but rotated horizontally so that none of the students would have their backs turned to the audience, only their side. Then, the students formed pairs based on the class they had been put into.

Victória had been assigned to the rule-obsessed Tenya Iida, who despite his overly strict attitude and slight lack of a grasp for teenager culture, was a great fit for the 1-A class representative. When she stood in front of him, he put the sign down and bowed, his eyes emitting a strangely determined gleam from behind his glasses.

"Greetings, fellow student! My name is Tenya Iida, and I am the representative of class 1-A," he stated in Portuguese, as the Japanese students were instructed to recite the sentences in the foreigners' native language. His attempt at speaking Portuguese was _particularly unpleasant_ to listen to, but she couldn't blame him as they didn't have a lot of time to practice.

"My duty is to make sure you have an excellent time studying here at U.A. high school, so you may come to me in case you ever need something!" He bowed again, possibly to signal he had finished his part.

"My name is Victória Machado, and I am pleased to be studying with you. I am going to take the most out of this experience, and as such, I am grateful for your services." She cursed herself mentally as she finished the Japanese sentence, not being sure if she had to invert the order of her names or not. Her voice was much lower in volume in comparison than his, blending perfectly with the rest of the people attending the ceremony.

The foreign students bowed, the audience clapped, and the event was over after exactly two hours. Victória searched for Glória as the audience left, and walked over to give her a hug. The older woman took much longer to release the hug than usual – at least, she thought – but it was probably not a big deal.

After saying goodbye to her mother, Victória searched through the audience once again and almost jumped as she felt the hand of the one she was searching for touched her back. Uraraka Ochako wasn't wearing anything formal – just the regular school uniform – but Victória felt there was something different to her. It was if she had her own metaphorical spotlight pointing at her, making her sweet smile shine more than usual.

"Oh wow, you look amazing in that dress, Victória!" Uraraka squealed a little in joy, making the faintest hint of a blush appear on Victória's cheeks. "I think your pronunciation was really good! I hope Iida did a good job as well."

"It was fine." Victória nodded, rubbing the back of her neck nervously for a moment. "So… Doing the assignment at your house?"

"Oh yeah! I didn't forget about that! My mom is waiting for us outside. We… Don't have a car anymore, but it's gonna be fun anyways! I think you're gonna like meeting her. I've told her a lot about you, so you can blame me if she says something silly." Uraraka chuckled, starting to head outside.

"That's the opposite of a problem. Thank you for letting me sleep at your place for today, I'll make sure to not eat a lot." Both of the girls laughed, but there was something off in Uraraka's voice, as if she was in fact hoping Victória wouldn't go all out on her family's food reserves.

"Ah, don't worry about that! We'll both need to eat a lot to get stronger for the Sports Festival."

"Sports Festival? I think I'm missing something…?" Victória tilted her head slightly, trying not to bump into anyone as they walked outside.

"Yeah! It's a festival that happens every year at U.A. I heard it's a lot of fun, and plus it puts us on the radar for possible Pro Hero internships." Uraraka explaining, waving to her mother as they exited the doorway. "It's a little scary, to be honest. I don't know if I'm currently strong enough to do it…"

"I'm sure it'll be just fine. I can help you practice." Victória said assuredly.

"Oh? That would be great, Victória! Promise?"

"Promise."


	9. Will to Fight

The mechanical whir of the air conditioning was like an insult to Victória's ears. Not only did the machine make the environment increasingly unfriendly for her temperature-sensitive body, but it also had the _audacity_ to loudly announce that it was about to triumph over her, while simultaneously spitting water droplets on whoever was unfortunate enough to be walking in the alley behind the building at the wrong time.

But this handicap was one she imposed on herself. Or Eros did, to be precise. She had and certainly was going to be in a few places where the temperature wouldn't be as favorable as she liked. It was not like the fairly cheap air conditioner could reproduce the same temperatures that occurred in the mountains or something as harsh as the Russian winters, but she had to climb the metaphorical ladder of step at a time. When her energy was sapped by the cold, she would have to rely on her technique rather than pure brute strength. Standing your ground, analyzing and exploiting the opponent's weakness – that is what martial arts are all about.

But not what they are _exclusively_ about. They were mostly used as a way to learn discipline, respect and self control. Restraining yourself when faced with a weaker opponent or not losing your cool when someone has more skill than you are both important values that have to be practiced every time you enter the ring. That was why, when she was hit with the cushioned boxing glove for what felt like the hundredth time in that minute, Victória didn't scream. She didn't even flinch. She simply undid her stance, raising her hand in the air to signify she needed a break. Another object was thrown at her, but this time it was a water bottle. She quickly unscrewed the cap and let the (hotter than) room temperature liquid course through her body.

" **Again."** Victória exhaled, tossing the bottle to the side and preparing her stance again. Both feet planted on the ground, one slightly flexed in front of her and the other retreating to give her support. Both arms in front of her forming a guard, protecting her face and chest. She held her breath for a moment. The scales that made up most of her body were slowly changing color, their hue going from a dark green to almost black in a literally painfully slow pace. It was if millions of tiny pins stabbed each of her scales, forcing her to steady her breath to diminish the effects of the ache. At the same time, the subtle yet effective change on her coloration allowed her scales to better absorb the sunlight coming through the academy window, helping her struggle against the vile air conditioner.

"Your opponents are not going to stand still and let you power up just because you are in pain." Eros repeated once again, tightening his fighting gloves and striking a punch against Victória's guard. The large man obviously did not put much of his strength into the attack, but he was fierce enough to cause Victória huff. Her left arm quickly deflected another punch, this time aimed at her side. And another. And another. And **another**. Victória was capable of recognizing her reflexes weren't fast enough in this temperature to dodge the strikes, so she opted for defending all of them instead. The strategy didn't cost her a lot of energy, but the knockback combined with the pain of her special technique slowly chipped away at her relatively high pain tolerance. After about ten minutes, she was officially done for.

"You were almost there." Eros congratulated, throwing another water bottle at her. Though this one harmlessly bounced off her back instead of getting caught.

"Almost is not there." Victória wasn't in the mood for empty comforting words, her breathing heavy like the exhaustion that followed after every training session. Her scales turned back into a dark green color in the blink of an eye. "The Sports Festival is in a week. **One**. It's not my fault I wasn't warned beforehand, but it's my fault that I didn't start training like this earlier."

Eros opened his mouth to protest, but found himself out of words. It was useless to try to convince her when both tiredness and strong emotions were influencing her conscience – and plus, she also had a point. The man quietly put the pieces of training equipment he was wearing back on their respective racks, walking towards the water fountain to get his own share of hydration. He glanced at the humble plastic clock on the wall – which was strategically placed in a corner so that the students wouldn't be able to look at it and stop putting effort into their moves when the class was close to an end.

"Five in the afternoon already, I better get ready for the actual classes soon." Eros commented, making Victória almost choke on her drink.

"Five already?! Shit, I'm supposed to meet with the girls at 5:30!" Victória tossed the plastic bottle and ran towards the instructor-only shower room. "I don't have time to get home so I think I'm going to shower here. Are there any spare clothes?"

" _Language_ , please. And it depends on how formal your meeting is," he chugged the rest of the water inside his small plastic cup and threw it in the trash bin besides the water fountain, "but the answer is probably no."

"Come on! Just put something in the changing room for me, it's urgent." She groaned.

"You're not going to like it at all."

* * *

She did not like it. At all.

A white tank top with word "hunk" written on it with bright bubbly red letters, a pair of cheetah print leggings and some "ancient gladiator" style sandals. It was a miracle they fit her at all (since Eros was gigantic in comparison to her) – and she honestly would have preferred if they did not. She even let her long red hair cascade down in front of her face instead of behind her head, so the probability of someone besides the 1-A girls recognizing her would diminish.

Victória rushed out of Little Stars and made her way through the streets of Musutafu, already five minutes late because she spent extra time debating whether she should or not have put on Eros' outfit. There weren't many people out in the late afternoon, and the few there luckily didn't seem too interested in questioning her fashion choices. Such were the perks of living in a world where quirks are common – after seeing something as extraordinary as someone who could literally create black holes out of thin air, the people weren't as picky with things such as bad outfits or hairstyles.

The girls were waiting in front of the mall. Victória could see they had worried expressions on their faces, but they quickly smiled when as they noticed her walking towards them. They were all sporting casual outfits – save for Yaoyorozu who was always wearing something at least a little fancy because of her background. She stepped in front of the group and looked Victória up and down. It was pretty clear that she was holding a chuckle.

"Complicated situation. Don't talk about it, please." Victória said before any of the girls could embarrass her further. She tightly clutched her purse in front of her body.

"Oh, it's no problem at all, Victória! One of our activities is stopping by clothing stores anyways, so we can do that first and get you a more… Comfortable outfit." Yaoyorozu seemed to have regained her composure. The rest of the girls nodded at her suggestion, and into the mall they went.

The building was huge both horizontally and vertically, having multiple floors with an immense variety of shops, restaurants and establishments such as karaoke bars and arcades. Victória stood in the middle of the group of girls as to not get spotted dressed _like that_ , and they headed straight into one of the clothing stores. It didn't take too long for her to pick an outfit she liked: a leather jacket on top of a simple gray short-sleeved shirt, accompanied by black jeans and dark brown boots. She changed into it and received a thumbs-up from Jirou – who was sporting a similar jacket – before they moved to the next store. Victória didn't buy any more clothes, save from a few jewelry pieces for her mother. Some of the other girls also changed into their new outfits on the spot, such as Mina, who was now wearing a purple tank top coupled with some jean shorts.

The next stop was a music CD store. Despite her wardrobe being a weird mix of emo and punk, Victória didn't usually listen to those kinds of music – or any kind at all. If anything, what she usually listened to were the cheesy 80s workout CDs that Eros brought with him everywhere. She awkwardly clung to Uraraka as the girl cheerily browsed through the idol and girl group categories. Victória made a mental list of the songs Uraraka seemed to enjoy so she could give them a try later.

The girls headed for the food court next. Victória watched as the everyone bought all kinds of pastries and desserts, except Uraraka. The girl seemed a little nervous when Victória asked why that was.

"Ah, I'm not that hungry…" Uraraka chuckled, and then was instantly refuted by her growling stomach.

"We can share." Victória smiled to try to comfort her. "Just pick whatever, it's fine by me."

She watched as Uraraka got the cheapest item on the menu, a strawberry shortcake that did look very appetizing. Victória just thought Uraraka was embarrassed to spend too much of her money, and thus didn't say anything about the situation. Mina, on the other hand, seemed quite amused at it.

"Oh, you two are sharing? So romantic!" Victória couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as all the eyes suddenly turned to her, but continued to act cool.

"You know Uraraka's into Izuku though." Jirou said, fidgeting with one of her earphone jacks as she sipped her chocolate milkshake. That seemed to trigger something in Uraraka's mind, as a deep crimson blush spread all over her face.

"Ah, it's nothing like that! It's… It's… We're just friends!" She huffed, trying to cover her cheeks with her hands.

"Speaking of the devil… Say hi!" Everyone in the group turned around to see Izuku himself, getting pushed towards the table by a pair of floating hands. He was holding a shopping bag from a sports gear store Victória recognized well, and looked like he'd been caught off guard doing something he shouldn't. Just _when_ had Tooru walked away from them?

"Um… Hello there!" The boy looked equally as flustered as Uraraka, if not more. "It's a surprise to see everyone here!"

"Yeah, it's a surprise to see you here too! You know," Mina began, a devious smirk growing on her face, "We were talking about you just now! What a coincidence, huh?"

"Yeah! We were talking about how you and U– " Tooru couldn't finish the sentence, as Uraraka quickly interfered to save herself the embarrassment.

"About how well you did in the last written exam! You do really have an eye for analyzing other people's quirks, right?" Uraraka laughed nervously, making Izuku's blush deepen because of the compliment.

"Oh, thank you so much! It wasn't really that difficult, you just had to look at the big picture and notice that both of the villains had…" Izuku started going on and on about scenario, making everyone in the table except Uraraka a bit annoyed. The girl looked relieved that the subject of the conversation wasn't her crush anymore.

In the middle of Izuku's ramble, Victória's phone made a noise signifying she had received a text. She quietly unlocked her phone under the table, seeing who could be messaging her at a time like that, then frowned.

 **[Mom] said:**

 **Hey could you come home soon?**

There it was. The choice she trying to avoid. She looked up, deciding to continue texting as the conversation proceeded without her.

 **[Vic] said:**

 **What's up?**

The typing bubble stayed on the screen for at least ten seconds before the reply finally came.

 **[Mom] said:**

 **Is it a crime to miss my daughter now?**

Victória rolled her eyes. _Really now?_

"Oh, I think I know you from somewhere! Victória, wasn't it?" She snapped out of the texting as she heard her name being called in real life. It was Izuku's voice, and everyone was suddenly looking at her once again.

"You teach at that quirkless academy, right? I… I think you did a really good job with the kids!" Victória wasn't able to fully absorb the emotion in Izuku's voice, as her mind was still thinking on what to say to her mother. She nodded slightly.

"Yeah, used to. Classes are keeping me busy enough right now." She scratched the back of her head, looking around the table until her gaze meet Yaoyorozu's. "Hey, I'll be right back, something came up."

Victória got up and quickly made her way outside. It was dark at that point, the imposing sun finally giving in and making way for the stars to take their place at the night sky. She picked up her phone, but instead of texting back, she called her mother. It was picked up immediately.

"Come here this instant!" Glória's voice seemed shaky, almost raspy. Had she been _crying_? "…I'm sorry about that. But please, I really need you here."

"Mom, what's going on?" Victória huffed, leaning against one of the building's outer walls. "You've been like this since my field trip day. Is it because I didn't arrive in time to save Stephen? Is that _why_?"

"No, it's just…"

" _Let me live_ , please! I finally have friends now! Real ones!" She raised her voice just a little, but it was enough to make it clear that she definitely wasn't happy.

"I'm weak, Victória!" Her mother suddenly blurted out, a sob coming a few moments later as well. "I did **nothing**! I just stood there and looked!"

"Mom, no. I'm sure you did your best." She took a deep breath, cussing herself mentally for lashing out at her mother while she was in such a bad mental state.

"My best means nothing if it still got someone killed! Please Victória, I need someone to protect me!"

"Listen to me. I'm here now." Another deep breath. "You raised me like this. You're stronger than I am, mom. You and Eros taught me everything I know today. It'll be alright."

Cold silence.

"You can do it. Repeat that."

"That's the same thing we do with kids, Victória." The woman finally said, following with a nervous chuckle.

"So? It always works for the kids."

"I can do it."

"That wasn't very convincing, Miss Machado."

"Geez, don't make me do this…" Glória Inhaled. "I can do this."

"Louder."

"I can do this! I can do this! **I can do this!** "

"Alright, alright. That's enough, mom. You got the spirit." Victória chuckled. "I'm only going to be taking a few more hours, I promise. See you soon, I love you."

"Love you too, have fun with your girlfriends."

" **Hey yo** –" Glória hanged up before her daughter could protest. Cheeky.

Victória took some time to clear her mind, breathing deeply and simply looking at the sky for a while, before going back into the mall. The girls were still there, along with Izuku, who had finally taken a seat next to Uraraka.

"I'm glad you are finally back! We were all starting to get a little worried." Yaoyorozu was the first to speak up, and the rest of the group fell silent as Victória's presence was made known. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, just had to help my mom find something. Don't worry about it." Victória smiled, technically not lying.

"Good, good, but also," Mina began with a dramatic tone, "Why didn't you tell us you taught kids?"

"I thought I had? Izuku even mentioned it before I left." She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but you hid some very important details from us! Pretending you're Godzilla to teach kids about escape maneuvers? Really?"

"Ah, it's just a fun thing we do…" She rubbed the back of her neck and blushed slightly, raising a giggle out of the other girls.

"I can't wait to fight you one day! I want to see what kind of fighting style you developed from traveling around the world." Izuku smiled, clenching his right hand into a fist as a sign of determination.

"Oh yeah, the Sports Festival is happening next week, right? I wonder if there will actually be an opportunity for you two to fight, _kero_." Asui placed one finger on her cheek, her eyes moving from Izuku to Victória as if telling her to say something about the challenge.

"I'm going to be waiting for you at the top," Victória said after finishing the last bite of her half of the shortcake. She wasn't one to boast, but didn't find it wrong to do so in a friendly situation like this one, "you're gonna have to catch up to me."

"We'll see! I'm going to cheer for you in your other battles, but when the time comes, I'll give everything I got!" He grinned. "I can't wait to be there!"

* * *

Author's notes: There it is, the last of the "filler" chapters before the Sports Festival Arc!

Things will start branching out from canon a bit beginning next chapter, so get ready!


	10. Climb Over the Roadblock

**Author's notes: Fun fact: this chapter was originally going to be posted tomorrow, but I have learned that today (March 22) is the World Goth day, and goth is definitely one of Victória's aesthetics so I rushed a bit with the editing to post it today. I hope there's not too many typos because of that lmao.**

* * *

"Yes, you all heard me correctly. You are not going to be participating in this year's Sports Festival."

The once noisy room had now fallen into a deep silence. Anger, sadness, disappointment; all kinds of emotions could be felt swimming through the thick tension in the air. The man reporting the bad news, Shouta Aizawa, didn't seem too pleased about them either. Although it was hard to tell what his facial expression was due to the bandages that now covered most of his face – a result from the USJ incident – something in his voice told the students he had also been in a similar position in a distant past.

"Here is the reasoning behind this decision: truth be told, there is none, it was a small yet pretty considerable oversight." He explained, letting out an almost inaudible sigh. "After the incident with the villains at the USJ facility, the school has been focusing more on securing the campus than other matters – one of them being the foreigner program. You were not taken into account while preparing the school festival simply because the school forgot about it, and there is no time to properly fix this issue."

When all the foreign students were pulled away from their classes and placed into an empty classroom, they weren't expecting to be disappointed once more by the school administration. Victória herself wasn't very happy about the subject – she would be physically fuming it was possible for her to do so, and her eyes shot daggers at whoever was careless enough to meet her gaze. Omar seemed less upset about the fact, but as a Department of Support student, he definitely wasn't happy about not being able to show his inventions to possible investors.

"I am aware of how bad the situation is," Aizawa continued, "but there is nothing that I can do about it. As a Pro Hero, I'm saddened to see that you will miss such a great opportunity, especially because this is something you had no control over. But as a teacher, all I can do is inform you of the situation and make sure your participation in future events will be guaranteed. "

The students looked at each other worriedly. Then, as Aizawa was ready to leave, Victória took a deep breath and calmly raising her hand, looking at the teacher's uncovered and tired eyes with a more neutral expression.

"What _can_ _we_ do, then?"

"…I don't think I understand your question, Machado." He raised an eyebrow.

"You said there is nothing _you_ specifically can do about the situation," She clarified, fixing her posture on the chair, "but what can **we** the people who will _actually_ be affected, do about it?"

Aizawa stood there in silence not as a form of intimidation, but because he was genuinely thinking about the possibilities. "To be honest, I don't have any idea. Badmouth U.A. on social media, make some protest banners, I don't know. As long as you don't interrupt the course of the festival, everything is allowed. Just don't tell people I encouraged you to do this in case anybody asks, I have enough problems with the people higher up already."

Soon enough, ideas were popping in the heads of the students, their hearts filled with a newfound hope and determination. **We can do it.**

* * *

"So, what are we gonna do?"

Omar wasn't looking directly at Victória when he asked, but rather working on what looked like a bulletproof vest with circuits inside. He had simply said that it was a project he started recently due to an "unusual amount of inspiration", and refused to clarify until it was ready. The backroom them and the rest of the foreign students had been stuffed into in preparation for the festival was tiny and barely illuminated, but everyone in there seemed to be in an unusually cheery mood, despite what had happened the day before. _Little stars_ , that together could illuminate their own path to whatever they desired.

" _We_? I didn't see you with us after the announcement as we started planning stuff. To be fair, you were probably working on… Whatever this thing is supposed to be, but your presence would have been appreciated." Victória rolled her eyes. "But it's fine now. There is already a plan formed, and it's a pretty simple one. According to Iida, there–"

"Who?"

"Iida Tenya, 1-A class representative. Don't interrupt me, please. According to him, there will be two students who are supposed to make speeches at the beginning of the festival. One is the guy who did the best on the entrance exam, I think he's from my class but he's annoying so I haven't tried to contact him about our plan. The ot–"

"Wait wait wait, when did this become _our_ plan? You accepted me into the group that easily even though I didn't really do any work?" Omar turned around and answered to her annoyed gaze with a smirk and a wink. "Sorry, that's it for my snarky comments, go on.."

" _Anyways_. There is also going to be a speech by the representative of the foreign student body. They didn't tell us that we had to elect one until like one hour ago, but the people in the group chat decided it's going to be me. So I was planning to… _**Yes, Omar?**_ " Victória glared at him and unsheathed her claws, the human part of her face turning into a light shade of crimson as she saw him quietly raise his hand to speak.

"…Why didn't you put me in the group chat?"

"You told me you had accidentally destroyed your phone while trying to build a propulsion system!"

"I bought one this morning! What kind of guy do you think I am, I gotta call my mom after the festival is over dude!"

Victória took a very deep breath before continuing. "You can give me your number later. So basically, we decided to–"

This time, she wasn't so surprised by the interruption, not so pleased by it for a different reason – nervousness. She could hear a kind of alarm blaring from inside the room. That was their cue to go out there! She groaned and headed for the exit, the students formed an organized line as they walked out of the room through a narrow hallway.

" **And finally, sprinkled among the other classes, here they are, the chosen ones of U.A.'s new foreigner program!"**

Cheers coming from all over the crowd could be suddenly heard from all directions, the sun hitting the newly arrived group of students that marched towards the center and making them visible to the crowd. The stadium was full and bustling with energy, and there were also cameras everywhere meaning the event was being watched by people from all Japan – and maybe even from the whole world! Victória obviously couldn't find her mother and Eros in the massive grandstand, but she could feel they were both watching and rooting for her. To think they might not even have the chance to participate in such an event, it filled her heart with insecurity an anger. Though she quickly covered those feeling up with her usual serious demeanor. There was no use in simply complaining anymore, it was time to _act_.

As they arrived near an elevated platform in the center of the stadium, a skimpily dressed woman could be seen standing on it with a wicked grin on her face. She wore a costume that was… Really bold, considering it was underaged teens she was working with. She was also holding an object that Victória (fortunately) didn't recognize, that looked like a stylized duster.

"Silence, everyone!" She shook the object around, and it made a whip-like noise. "Representing all the students, Bakugou Katsuki from class 1-A."

The student in question – which Victória recognized as the most stuck up and childish person in her class and maybe in the whole school – casually walked onto the platform besides the woman. He stood in front of the microphone for a few seconds, the little gears in his repugnant mind turning in just the right order to miraculously form a sentence that didn't include cussing or screaming, and finally opened his mouth.

"I pledge… That I will be number one."

The " _speech_ " was quickly followed by a wave of boos and angry comments as Bakugou got off the platform, intentionally bumping into a few people he didn't like on his way back to the middle of the crowd.

"Silence!" This time, the woman had to shake her whip-duster twice to dismiss the chaos that Bakugou had caused. "Representing the students participating in U.A.'s new foreigner program…"

She froze for a brief moment then pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket – the same piece that had been handed to Aizawa mere minutes before they were guided into the waiting room.

"Victória Machado!"

This time, there weren't many cheers or comments as Victória wasn't a well-known student at all, but if anything, the silence made her nervousness a lot worse. She quickly made her way onto the platform and stood in front of the microphone. She took a few seconds to recall the words the students had agreed onto, then inhaled before speaking up.

"I will be brief as to not waste any more of your time like my fellow student just did." Victória paused. She had added that to the speech on the fly, so she had to reorganize it on her mind once again before speaking up.

"Due to an oversight made by the administration of U.A., we – students from all around the world who worked hard to be able to enroll into this school – will not be participating in the Sports Festival this year. We want you all, spectators as well as fellow students who are able to participate, to keep this in your minds once the winner stands on their neat little podium to receive their award. We were robbed of this opportunity by a pathetic mistake, and we seriously wish every international student who wishes to be at U.A. to reconsider their choices."

Victória was looking down as she stepped back into the crowd of foreign students, but she could feel that all eyes were on her at that moment. Together, the group collectively walked towards the exit of the stadium. Midnight herself stood there with her mouth wide open for a second, before shaking it off and properly beginning the festival as if nothing had happened. But deep down, she knew something had and was going to be done.

* * *

"Seems to be working so far, but what now?"

Omar browsed through his phone, not so coincidentally sitting on the portion of the table that Victória was going to place the pile of books and magazines onto. Already feeling emotionally exhausted from the events that transpired less than an hour ago, she decided not to get mad at him and simply push him aside a little. He didn't seem to mind.

"There's a lot of people commenting about that on social media. Heh, I even saw one of those posts that are like, " **you idiots her name is Victória Machado don't dare to ignore her identity!"** despite the media legally not being able to put your name in headlines yet. It's kinda silly."

She still didn't answer, but instead continued to organize the paperwork she had brought to the school library – one of the few places in the campus that remained open despite the Sports Festival. He leaned in onto the papers, essentially blocking her view. "Whatcha doing?"

"Preparing some material for my upcoming school club." Victória rolled her eyes and walked away from the table, getting yet another small box from the massive bag she had bought and opening it. There were some old photographs in there, as well as what looked like certificates and legal paperwork written in Portuguese. "Please don't touch those, they're fragile."

"Oookay then." Omar finally left the table, properly sitting on a nearby chair and turning his attention to the phone once again. "You still haven't answered me yet though."

"That's because I don't know what's gonna happen, Omar. We just have to wait for the school to make any sort of devision. I'm almost sure they _will_ , since the media caught all of that and they probably want to fix their image right now, but I don't know what it'll be."

The library door suddenly burst open, and someone started running towards the two. It was a boy with not more than 5'5" in height, with short brown hair and a fairly chubby build. Victória recognized him simply as one of the foreign students, but couldn't really tell where or which class he was from.

"GUYS! GUYS! IMPORTANT NEWS! IMP–" He shouted, before being rightfully interrupted by a " _shh_ **"** coming from the woman responsible for the library.

"Go back to the stadium right now, we're all gonna fight!"

* * *

 **Author's notes: Hey, we reached a double digits chapter number! This is by far the longest fanfic I've ever written, and also probably the longest not school related text I've ever written as well! I'm really excited to continue writing this story, and I hope you guys are enjoying it as well.**


	11. Icebreaker

The stadium suddenly fell in deep silence as the foreign students returned. The whole festival had pretty much already ended; the number of spectators on the grandstand were slowly decreasing, many of the students weren't present due to being knocked out during the activities, and the medals had already been given out. But that familiar energy was still there, the one that made everyone strive to do their best and not turn their back at the sight of danger. Cameras were being turned on and being pointed at the arriving group, ready to catch every action done to and by them.

The arena format – a simple elevated slab of concrete where the third stage battles took place – was still there, and the elevated platform from where the speeches had been given was now ton top of it. Midnight wasn't standing there, however. She and the microphone were on the grass part of the stadium, at the same level as the students. Was this a metaphor to signal she was now speaking as an equal? Or was it because the people on the lowest step of the grandstand wouldn't be able to see her curves with an obscene amount of detail if she was on the platform?

"The administration of U.A. would like to issue an apology. Not only for the foreign students, but for everyone who is watching and participating in this event here today."

The speech was long and full of buzzwords, clearly trying to fix the nasty scratch that had been made in the school's reputation instead of actually trying to make up to the students. The only thing that showed a degree of sincerity was Midnight's expression – but that was expected from a famous hero. With all the eyes on her that often, she had probably learned to fake her emotions to get her audience more invested.

Looking at the cabin from which the commentator's voice was streamed, Victória could see that both Present Mic and Aizawa also had some regret on their faces. How ironic, for the man whose job is solely to induce the audience into thinking something to not end up being the one who tried to console them. The apology would have probably sounded much more genuine if it was Present Mic's apologetic voice blaring through the speakers instead of Midnight's.

However, his voice did come after she was done with the speech, and it did bring good news.

" **Of course, we can't let them miss out on the fun now, can we? So that's why we decided to repeat our last round, but this time the foreigners are the ones who choose who they'll fight!"** He explained. Victória's feelings about that were… Bittersweet, but at least they were doing _something_. **"This won't alter the rankings of the festival, but hey, it's the least we can do to give these guys a chance!"**

The audience exploded with cheers, some of the people who were leaving seemingly returning to see the show – as well as some brand new spectators. Victória's eyes were guided towards Eros and her mother in the audience. She couldn't tell their expressions because of the distance, but she could distinguish a small nod coming from both of them.

 _Just like last time._

* * *

"I do not like being used as an assistant advertiser, not at all!"

Cementoss had quickly repaired the stadium from the damage it suffered during Bakugou and Todoroki's battle, and it was ready to hold another match. Standing on opposite corners, Iida and Omar traded glances. The support department hero couldn't help but smile and look around the audience, while the moral-compass speedster looked like he just wanted to get the whole thing over with.

"C'mon man, I promise we'll have a real fight once this is done. Now, give me a moment to explain how this thing works."

Omar was wearing the vest Victória saw him fidgeting with during their free time. Though it was now much bulkier, and there was a sort of utility belt attached to the lower part, containing various small capsules connected to the vest by thick wires. Omar pulled out a microphone from seemingly nowhere, tapping it a few times to test it before starting his presentation.

"This is a pretty odd place to be presenting the best invention of the century, admittedly, but I'll take whatever opportunity I can to make the world a better place. Now, you may be asking yourselves, just what is this ugly thing I'm wearing?" He gestured with his free hand towards his chest and abdomen. "I'll tell you what it is: a kinetic energy redirector, based on yours truly! C'mon **Sonic** , strike me as hard as you can! Just make sure to aim on the thing, please."

Iida started running towards him as soon as the words came out of his mouth – as if he was planning to beat Omar up regardless of permission being given or not. Omar raised his hands to give him full access to the vest, and soon enough he made contact with it through a powerful shoulder bash. Omar should have been sent flying away by the attack, but for some reason Iida had stopped dead in his tracks. At the very moment he made contact, one of the capsule flew off Omar's belt with precisely the same velocity Iida was carrying before. Dumbfounded, Iida continued to punch it while Omar explained the details of his "best work so far". As the last capsule was launched away, Iida's fist was able to follow its path for the last time, landing a direct blow on the vest. It absorbed some of the impact without getting damaged, but it was still possible to tell Omar had felt that.

"I am really sorry, Mogotsi!" Iida started to bow profusely, making use of Omar's last name as he apologized. "I was not aware of when to stop, I am sorry for unfairly landing a hit on you like that!"

"Chill, man, I'm good!" Omar walked to the edge of the stage, took off the vest and extended his arm. One of U.A.'s chore-doing robots came to pick it up, trailing towards the investor's cabin so it could also inform them of pricing and other production details.

"Hang on, hang on, I'm not ready yet." Omar said after Iida had arrived on his starting position once again. In a swift motion, he took off his shirt and jacket. "Now I am! Come with everything you've got! I'm pretty confident I'm gonna win!"

Iida nodded and ran towards Omar once again. The exhaust pipes on his legs started heating up, and soon enough blue flames spouted out of it as he reached impressive speeds. After he got close enough to Omar, he jumped, swinging his waist and striking Omar's bare chest with a powerful kick.

"Recipro… What?" Iida found himself frozen mid-air, his forefoot lightly touching Omar's chest. Omar grabbed onto it with both of his hands, and started swinging him around as if he was an Olympic throwing weight.

"Didn't you pay attention when I said the invention was based off me? It's basically my quirk in a product, dummy!" He grinned. Suddenly, his spinning accelerated immensely, making Iida start screaming in terror. Omar let go of his legs after a while, sending Iida flying offstage, and landing on the grass with a comically loud thud. He looked… Disappointed in himself in a way?

"That's all for today, folks! Follow my development blogs for more–"

* * *

Victória turned off the TV in the empty waiting room she was at, waiting for one of the chore robots to deliver her package. It was good that they were allowed to carry objects into the battle if they so wished, but the form required to get even the most simple of things was extensive. Luckily, she wasn't necessarily in a hurry. Due to her choice of opponent, her battle was hyped up to be the last one, to keep the viewers waiting and milk every last drop of view time out of them.

Despite the large number of people that made it into the last stage, Victória's choices were pretty limited. Bakugou was currently on the nurse's office receiving some sedatives to forcefully knock him out of his fit of rage. Uraraka and Midoriya were also there, but because their injuries were more serious than the rest of the competitors. Picking one of the 1-B students would be a good idea, except for the fact that she didn't have a clue on what their quirks were. Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu and Kirishima were all good choices, but there was **someone else**. They were also injured, but the nurse agreed to fix them up quickly so they could fight one last time.

Someone – no, _something_ – knocked on the door three times before entering. A small cone shaped robot entered the room, its wheels making a quiet humming sound. When it reached Victória, it opened its front compartment, which contained a tiny box wrapped neatly with a red ribbon. Victória picked it up and held it close to her chest for a few seconds, trying to uncloud her mind from all the nervousness and hypothetical what-ifs she had gathered from the whole day. Mental preparation was just as important as physical one, and this was probably the most important moment in her hero career so far.

She stuck the box in one of her pant pockets and took a deep breath.

"I'm ready now."

" **Here he is; scoring second place in this year's sports festival,** _ **Todoroki Shouto!**_ **"**

The audience went mad, cheering and clapping for the boy who stood on the concrete platform emotionlessly. Despite crashing into countless walls and enduring Bakugou's Howitzer Impact, he looked like he just woke up from a good night of sleep. Those cold eyes staring deep into her very soul, searching for something that she couldn't tell what it was. His physical and mental injuries hadn't healed completely yet – meaning his performance would be somewhat impaired – but not to a big enough degree that it would give him an unfair disadvantage.

" **And here is the challenger, one of the foreign students that managed to get into the hero course – and Todoroki's classmate from class 1-A – Victória Machado!"**

Victória had finished stretching and warming up, and was returning his gaze with equal fierceness. Even more cheers followed her introduction, filling her with the last bit of determination she needed. She got into a guarding position, and _waited_.

" **Ready… Start!"**

In the blink of an eye, the air suddenly got frigid. Massive ice spikes erupted from the ground in front of Todoroki, growing and growing until they had covered pretty much the whole battlefield except for a small radius around their creator. They were the same scale as the ones he had used to prematurely end his fight against Sero, and knowing about Victória's quirk, he was pretty confident that was the only move he'd need to make in order to finally go home and sort his familial issues out.

 **Crash! Crash! Crash!**

The noise got louder and louder, shards flying in all directions until there was a straight path on the stadium that was free of ice. Victória stood at the exit, her scales slowly going from dark green to black. Despite her gritted teeth and unsheathed claws, Victória looked just fine injure-wise. She stomped on the ground with enormous stength to crack another oncoming wave and ice and dashed towards Todoroki. The boy was able to summon a wall of ice in time so that her punch hit it instead of his face, her other hand's claws cutting through what remained of it as if it was nothing. He huffed and lightly stomped his right foot on the ground, and suddenly her feet were bound by ice. For a good ten seconds he simply stared at her face, his empty eyes seeing to have finally found what they were looking for.

"Why did you choose to fight me?" His voice tone was as monotonous as ever. "I _am_ your weakness."

"I am better than you."

Victória quickly reached for her pocket and pulled out the box she had been given by the robot. Tearing the ribbon of with a swift claw motion, she removed the lid and pulled out a pair of matchsticks. She stuffed one in her pocket, and struck the other against her scales to light it up. She held it close to her school uniform jacket, and it slowly ignited. The newfound heat have her enough strength to break the ice at her feet and dash forward, landing a strong punch on Todoroki's stomach. The impact sent him flying almost offstage, but he acted quickly and placed an ice wall angled just right so that he'd bounce off it and land on the other side of the arena, on top of the icy pillars that he had created.

"I'm better than you!" She repeated louder, triggering another barrage of ice to come towards her. She covered her head with her arms and dashed headfirst into it, breaking through the various layers with little struggle. "Someone who underestimates his opponents doesn't deserve to have the glory!"

" _You don't know me._ " Todoroki dashed forwards, the water vapor in the air crystalizing in front of him and forming a ramp for him to walk above the pillars towards Victória. He had concluded that he didn't have enough stamina to play the ranged game for the whole battle, and was going to try to land a few direct blows here and there to weaken her off.

Jumping from the elevated position, he created spikes in the air that landed around Victória impeding her escape. Then, as he got closer to the ground, he extended his hand towards her. Knowing what was about to happen, she ducked under him and swiped her claws downward as he landed, opening a gash on his uniform jacket and four superficial but long cuts on his back. Todoroki winced and sprouted ice backwards at her from his feet, making her lose her balance and tumble into the ground and causing what had remained of her jacket to disintegrate in contact with the concrete.

Victória struck one hand downwards, burying her claws into the ground to anchor her in place and so prevent her for getting pushed off by the oncoming ice waves. Now trapped under a thick sheet of ice, she reached into her pocket for the last matchstick, lighting it up and setting fire to the white shirt she had under the jacket. She destroyed the ice in her way by kicking it with both of her feet and stood up once again, quickly spotting Todoroki in the center of the stadium. Small ice particles clung to the right side of his body, and steam came out of his heavy breath. But there was still fight in his eyes.

He created ice spikes on both her sides to narrow her path, and ran towards her until his right hand eventually reached her face. He started to freeze the water that clung to her human skin, but Victória slashed upwards onto his arm and caused him to retreat. Making use of his own ice rows, she took the opportunity to dash directly towards him, breaking through a newly formed ice wall and reaching for his neck with her claws sheathed. She landed a punch on his face with her free hand, and was pushed out of reach by an ice crystal. Through it, she could see his nose was now bleeding, gradually turning the ground he stood on crimson red.

Now with only her sports bra covering her chest, Victória could see that her scales were now a deep shade of black. She just now noticed the color changing had came to and end – the first time that had happened – and that her scales weren't hurting anymore.

 _Her scales weren't hurting anymore._

A wicked grin covered her face. Todoroki released his last resort attack, a rampage of ice walls, but Victória slashed and punched through every single one of them. Standing in front of him, she watched as he tried to circle around her, but she quickly caught him by dashing to the left. He went for the close-ranged freezing grasp again, but she ducked under it and grabbed him by the waist, raising him above her head with ease. Todoroki tried to grab onto her arms and freeze her one last time, but he quickly found himself out of bounds as Victória had quickly ran towards the edge of the stage and slammed him down hard out of bounds.

" **And the winner is… Victória Machado!"**

* * *

"The doctor said it's gonna be like this forever. I kinda like it. **"**

Victória gently tapped one of her arm scales, admiring their new color. They also seemed to get thicker as well, but she still had the same flexibility as ever.

"It fits your punk goth aesthetic." Eros smirked, putting his protective training boots on. "Even though they couldn't afford to get you medals in time, you still got a well-deserved power up."

She finished her stretching exercise and took a small sip of water. It didn't feel as bad when she drank something cold now, as if something had changed inside her as well. Besides the sudden bout of fame that had come from defeating Todoroki, the week after the festival had been a pretty interesting time for Victória. Her training intensified not just because her performance could have been better, but also to test her newfound abilities. Often times she'd pull off something she had never been able to do before, and it felt genuinely good. It was like she had gotten a new body – at the cost of subjecting herself to a risk of hypothermia.

Speaking of hypothermia, Todoroki himself seemed to warm up after the festival. He had congratulated her the next school day, and he was also starting to gradually use the fire side of his quirk more often. She didn't catch the whole emotional rollercoaster that was his and Midoriya's fight so she had no idea why that was a big deal, but everyone else looked proud of him so she just went with it.

"Hey, stop daydreaming, we've still got a whole hour of training to do." Eros snapped his fingers, pulling her out of her little retrospective. "Now c'mon, this is going to be our first sparring match since the festival. Show me what your new paint job did to your fighting abilities!"

Despite the obviously snarky comment, Eros was right.

It was time to stop looking back, and focus on today.

* * *

 **Author's notes: My internet may or may not go out soon, so I don't know when I'll be able to post next chapter.**

 **Also woah the number of story followers almost doubled since last chapter! Thank you guys so much, I hope you're liking the story so far!**

 **See you eventually!**


	12. Forming Bonds

**Author's notes: Shorter than usual, I know. I had to get some stuff out of the way before I start setting up some juicier stuff.**

* * *

U.A.'s clubrooms – located in the last floor of the classroom buildings – were just like regular unused classrooms, although the students could shape them however they wanted (with the help and permission of Cementoss) after their clubs reached a certain degree of popularity. The desks were arranged in a circle, with Victória 's desk facing the entrance door so she could see the students' (currently doubtful) facial expressions as well as people who entered or simply looked into the room to see what was going on. Inside, there were a total of ten students excluding Victória herself.

"So… What is the objective of this club anyways? What are we supposed to be _aware_ of exactly?" Ojiro asked, redirecting all the attention to him for a brief moment. She had heard some people saying that she had only created the "Awareness Club" so she could hold onto the popularity that she had acquired by her speech and battle in the Sports Festival, and she had been quietly waiting for an opportunity to explain herself.

"I've been to a lot of other schools in the past. Didn't stay in any of them for more than one month at a time because of my mom's schedule, but they were good learning experiences nevertheless. Anyways," Victória reached under her table and pulled out a stack of paperwork, "the school's regulation doesn't mention anything about a student council, or the possibility of creating one. And quite frankly, I don't think I would have been elected president if there _was_ one. So, I'm taking all the aspects of other student councils I've participated and putting them all into a club."

Nobody asked what the aspects were but she decided to continue anyways, getting another paper from her jacket pocket. "Meetings to discuss current school issues and possible solutions; Discussion rounds about current trending subjects; Fundraisings and promotion of other student events; And finally, gathering of students with the purpose of attending local demonstrations and riots."

Everyone was silent for a few moment, before Shoji raised one of his tentacle-hands, turning it into a mouth as Victória nodded in his direction. "I support your idea, don't get me wrong. But aren't there any rules forbidding the students from making any political statements? Encouraging students to participate in riots seems like one of the things that could be considered one."

"Yes and no. There are rules forbidding students from making political statements in the name of U.A. As an autonomous club, as long as we don't claim to represent anyone, defame the school or its staff or use any form of hate speech, we are allowed to proceed with the idea." She paused, concluding her explanation. Nobody else raised their hand, so she continued.

"Now that the objective of this club is clear, does anyone want to leave? I won't blame you if you do, as I hadn't been clear with my wording before, but please don't stay in the room if you aren't going to contribute to discussions." Victória watched the room in silence for a while, until eventually five out of the ten students left their chairs and exited the room. Two new people who were hanging out by the door came and sat on their places. She wasn't worried about the low initial numbers. She had seen worse student councils in the middle of the school year, and she knew that those who were actually interested in her club idea would recommend it to their friends.

"Good. I welcome all of you who decided to stay with open arms. Only metaphorically, I can't afford to knock off any of this stuff." She reached under the table once again, this time placing a stack of boxes and old photographs on the table. "Now, its time for a brief modern history class."

"I am sorry for the interruption, Victória, but I believe we already have that in our curriculum." Yaoyorozu chimed in causing Victória to roll her eyes.

"I'm not trying to imply Midnight isn't doing a good job in teaching us about _Japanese_ modern history," She tapped her claws on the table lightly. "But she is not doing a very good job in teaching us about _global_ modern history. Do you know anything about Europe's current quirk policies, Yaoyorozu?"

"Um… I know most of Europe is very conservative in relation to quirk users, some countries even going as far as deporting people whose quirks are considered too dangerous to their society." Yaoyorozu's voice contained a hint of doubt now. Victória recognized her tone of voice was a little too rude, but she wanted to make a point.

"Correct, but do you know why?" Yaoyorozu remained quiet this time, leaning back against her chair in slight embarrassment.

"Turns out, the appearance of quirks was lower in Europe compared to other continents. Most of the quirk users present there today are descendant of American or African people. And in the past, England in particular had a very strict policy – no, outright hate against non-European immigrants."

"Combine the two together and you have-" Victória opened one of the smaller boxes and held a small photograph. It depicted a woman reclined onto a dark green armchair. She had long red hair and her arms where in such a position that made it look like she had been cradling a baby. Her eyes were closed and she had a peaceful smile on her face, signs that would have shown the woman was simply sleeping at the time the picture was taken – if it wasn't for a small bullet hole on her forehead, and a large amount of burnt furniture scattered around on the room she was at. Yaoyorozu gulped, her face showing that she was feeling some kind of guilt or remorse for making Victória show them that picture.

"Victória, is this…?"

"One of the victims of the famous European terrorist group _"Inquisition"_ , murdered in her own household. They targeted specifically people with mutant-type quirks – but they'd make exceptions here and there if they considered someone's "threat level" to be more elevated than that of their main targets." Victória had a painfully neutral facial expression as she spoke, but her voice made it apparent that there was something that upset her about the picture that she wasn't telling the rest of the group about. Yaoyorozu and Jirou – who traded glances as the picture was shown – knew exactly what it was.

"Any other questions or suggestions before I go on?"

A boy with wild purple hair and bags under his eyes raised his hand. "Can I write the meeting minutes?"

"Go ahead." Victória felt her mind drifting away for a brief minute before she could give him the official club registry notebook. "Just write your name on it so I can report everything in my general document later."

 **Shinsou Hitoshi** was very excited to see what the future meetings of the Awareness Club held in store for him, and would contribute as much as he could.

* * *

"What, you think we're gonna accept a _foreigner_ into the Japanese History Club like this?"

"I-I just wanted to learn more about –"

Victória arrived just in time to see the boy get pushed against the wall, wincing as his backpack hit the concrete and transferred some of the shock to his back. She had stayed about an hour past her club's closing time because she had to finish the extensive paperwork that came with making one. Stepping out, she could see some other club founders leaving together for probably the same reason. And then there was **that**.

Before the aggressors could take another step forward to further harass the boy, Victória stepped in front of them. She glared at them for a full minute before raising her hand and unsheathing her claws. " **Out**."

The three boys that were collectively laughing at the foreign student glanced at each other quietly before closing the door. Victória gestured for the boy to follow her for a few feet until they had reached a quiet corner. She looked at him to see if he had any serious injuries and he somehow looked familiar…

"You're the guy who warned me and Omar about the Sports Festival fights, aren't you?" _The one that got scolded by the librarian_ , she wanted to say, but thought better about it. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…" He looked away, moving his brown bangs out of the way of his right eye. "M-My name is Rui… Rui Watanabe. From 1-B."

"Victória Machado, 1-A." She wasn't sure if she should bow or go for a handshake, so she just nodded slightly. Class 1-B, huh? That probably meant he had some form of combat capability, good enough to at least get him into the hero course. She decided she would ask about his quirk in a future encounter, when they got better acquainted. "You should stand up for yourself. People won't always be there to help you."

"Right. I'm working on that." He turned to look at her, blushing slightly. "You're on the foreigner program too, right? Have you talked to any of the other students?"

"Only one from the support department. I've heard the general studies and business people are a lot busier than us, surprisingly."

"Oh, really? I hope they're okay then, because I'm kinda drowning under all the homework teacher Vlad King hands us." Rui chuckled, taking his bag off his back and checking if anything had been damaged from the impact against the wall. "By the way… I think your fight in the Sports Festival was really cool! I didn't do so well myself, though…"

"Ah, thank you." She smiled. "Who did you fight against?"

"The bird guy… Tokoyami was it?" He took out a pink piece of mochi from his bag. It was a little deformed from the impact but he still stuffed it into his mouth anyways. "I knew I was probably going to lose, but I still wanted to fight with him, because…"

Rui paused, then swallowed. "Ah, nevermind. I have to go, mom told me I shouldn't leave granpa alone for this long."

Rui zipped his bag closed and put it on his back again and started walking downstairs. "See you around!"

Victória smirked to herself as he turned around the corner. He didn't finish the sentence, but she could very well understand what he was going to say. It was the same reason why she chose to pair up with Uraraka in most activities, after all.


	13. Foreshadowing

**Author's notes: Not my best chapter in terms of content to length ratio, but I had to put something out since I'm going to be out of town until sunday.**

 **There will be a new fic coming up soon though, so get hyped!**

* * *

"Codenames."

The previously tense 1-A students had all started cheering as they heard what the topic of today's Hero Informatics class was going to be. It had been a tough day for them, and the thought of doing a more fun and relaxed activity sounded soothing. Or _it would_ have sounded, as Aizawa quickly explained that this was related to their upcoming internships – the ones that would pretty much define the rest of their career. He then showed how many internship offers each of the students had gotten.

 **24** wasn't a very bad number for Victória, but she certainly expected more after having defeated someone as strong as Todoroki. Was it because she said "I'm better than you" to him? Or was it because her battle strategy mainly consisted of brute-forcing the situation and setting fire to her uniform? Both of these actually sounded like very valid reasons to not offer her an internship. Yikes.

As Aizawa started to explain that their hero names were only temporary but should be taken seriously, another one of their teachers entered through the classroom door. Kayama Nemuri – or as she was known among the public, Midnight – was going to help them choose their hero names.

Like VIctória was saying the day prior, she didn't have anything against Midnight herself, but rather about the school curriculum for the subject she taught. However, Victória was starting to think that the teacher herself was one of the people that thought Victória hated her, as she had been giving her some pretty mixed glances during her lectures. Whatever the reason might be, Victória didn't expect it to be positive.

"Fireborn Hero: Tarasque."

While Victória's mind was thinking about a variety of subjects, her body had already written her hero name on the sign she had been given and dragged herself to the front of the class to show it to the others. She didn't know how popular DnD was in Japan, but not a lot of the students seemed to have understood the reference behind her name. Midnight herself looked a little pensive, but it was for a different reason.

"Hm… It's certainly a very striking name, yes, but don't you think it's best to choose something without the "-suke" sound at the end? It's mostly used for boy names, you know."

"I think I am going to keep it like that, thank you teacher. I'm good."

"Alright, go back to your seat then." Midnight said, but then touched Victória's shoulder lightly as she was about to head off. She started whispering in her ear, in a rather provocative tone. "I'll see you in my room after this class is over."

A few of the students – Victória included – were wondering what that was all about, and some (Mineta) were even crafting some indecent scenarios in their heads. However, the subject quickly faded as Midnight started calling other people to present their names. Finally, in the end of the class, Aizawa handed to each of the students a list with the name of the Pro Heroes that had offered them internships – as well as a list of the hero offices that would accept those who didn't get any offers.

Victória was severely disappointed. Almost all of the heroes that wanted her were in the triple digits of the Japanese ranking, and focused mostly on rescue missions. _"Is that all they think I'm capable of doing?"_ She thought. _"Cleaning rubble?!"_

However, at the end of the page, there was one last pro hero. It wasn't printed onto the paper, but rather written on it with a hot pink marker. The name made Victória shudder.

" **Midnight~"**

* * *

"So, are you aware of the reason I called you here?"

Midnight's room was… Not as bad as Victória expected. Of course, there were some props used in her hero costumes here and there, and Midnight herself was currently holding a whip, but it could have been way worse.

"I assume it's about your internship offer, teacher."

" _Mistress_. And yes, you are correct."

Victória wasn't going to get used to calling her that. Not at all.

"Back to the main subject. I'm not going to list all of the reasons I've chosen to take you under my wing for this year's first internship deal because I don't want you to feel too good about yourself just yet." Midnight smirked. "But let's just say your behavior as of recently has been… Exemplary."

Oh. Well, those were good news. Victória just wished she hadn't licked her lips while saying that.

"However!" The woman struck her whip against the floor, producing a loud cracking noise. "I will warn you now, this will be no easy task. I will have you follow strict rules and do tasks for me every day. There won't be a lot of action, but I assure you will learn some very important skills for being a hero if you choose me. So, do you want to learn from me, Victória Machado?"

Victória couldn't believe that her two best choices were either a woman who wanted to turn her into a maid or someone called "Scrubbing Hero: Mighty Janitor". It felt like her stream of good luck had finally come to an end. She let out a deep sigh.

"Yes, mistress."

* * *

"You're gonna give her… That? On your first date?"

Jirou held her hand in front of her face, holding back her laughter. Victória, who was standing on the opposite side of the table, looked very unamused.

Since her internships were coming and the students would temporarily move to a home that was closer to the workplace they chose, VIctória thought of buying something for Uraraka. Her mother insisted it was a farewell gift, but she preferred the term (that she had just made up) see-you-soon gift. It wasn't like both of them were going to return from their internships as totally different people or anything – at best, they'd get a change in attitude and hero skills, but nothing that affected their personal lives. Or so she hoped, VIctória didn't want her behavior to be more like Midnight In the slightest. She was fine in maintain her "strong and cool" persona for the time being.

Jirou had spotted Victória as both of them were entering the mall, and they both decided to shop together. Jirou was there for shopping too, but for herself: she had told Victória she was going to shop on the music store again, so she "wouldn't get bored as hell during her free time" in her own internship.

"First, it's **not** a date." Victória moved some of her hair in front of her face to hide her blush. _At least Uraraka wasn't considering it a date_. "And second, who doesn't like Kirby? Just look at him."

Victória motioned towards the plush she had set on the table. Its body was perfectly round and pink, with stubby little arms and red shoes (feet) complimenting its friend-shaped form. It also had big shiny eyes and a smile on its face. Victória was telling the truth, there was no way someone could dislike Kirby. Although Jirou still had her doubts.

"I don't know, it feels a little too… What's the word… Cheesy?" Jirou shrugged. "Like, she's gonna figure out you're into her really fast if you just give her a Kirby out of nowhere."

Victória crossed her arms. She hadn't officially told Jirou she liked Uraraka, but she figured out so easily that she simply stopped trying to hide it too much after a while.

"Of course I'm not going to give her just Kirby. Watch this." Victória took a miniature black belt out of her shopping back and wrapped it around the plush figure's… Waist? Around its very round body. "See? It's to celebrate her internship with Gunhead. You know, because he teaches martial arts? I'm very clever."

Jirou kept on a _"really?"_ facial expression for about then seconds before she burst into a fit of giggles. Victória let out a huff and sunk her face onto the table. "Is it really that bad of a gift?"

"No, no, I's perfect." Jirou said after calming down. "I'm sure she's gonna love it."

"I don't know, I just… Feel like something is going to go wrong." Victória blew the hair out of her face. "She doesn't like me."

"What? No, of course she likes you."Jirou gently scratched the top of Victória's head with one of her earphone jacks.

Victória remained in silence for a while, then sat upright and shook her head. "Maybe I'm just overthinking it… Hey, that's right, didn't you have to go somewhere as well?"

"Yeah, I was waiting for you to finish being dramatic. Let's go, lovebird."

Not a lot had changed in the store since their last visit. There were a few new products here and there and the clerk was a different one this time, but the same retro-ish atmosphere was still present. Jirou went straight for the shelf full of records. Victória wandered around the store on her own for a while, trying to distract herself from the possibilities of tomorrow night's "not a date" going wrong, walking towards the aisle full of girl group CDs. It was really strange to see so many of these being sold all around – even in different stores! – especially because they were labeled such things like "popular" or "most sold this week". She hadn't been to a lot of music stores before, but that was mainly because these weren't a thing anymore in most places she'd been.

Victória stopped as she was glancing over the row of CDs with pastel pink covers, spotting one of the bands Uraraka said was her favorite. Would that be excessive? She was almost out of personal money as well, and using her emergency money to buy a gift for someone – specially when she had already had bought something – would probably earn her a few scoldings from her mother when she found out. There were multiple perfectly valid reasons not to buy any of those CDs.

That was why she bought the collector's edition box instead.

"I can't believe you right now." Jirou shook her head semi-disapprovingly as they walked out of the mall.

"My mom is going to kill me." Said VIctória, who had spent 95% of her emergency money buying a gift for her friend – and the other 5% in a pretty wrapping for it. "By the way, why is that one package you bought labeled _"for Momo"_? I thought you were going to buy stuff for your internship."

"…" Jirou stopped walking, glaring in response to Victória's smirk. "I'm going to stop bugging you about it if you forget you saw this."


	14. Bittersweet Friendship

Victória slowly opened her eyes as the golden rays of the sun hovered into her bedroom, shining right in her face as if Mother Nature herself was telling her she needed to wake up immediately. She rolled out of her futon and onto her phone, fortunately not damaging it but pulling the charger cord out due to her weight. Groaning, she took it from under her body and unlocked it to check for new messages.

 _Ah, that's right!_ She had spent the whole night prior chatting with Jirou about their upcoming not-dates. That's why her body felt like a bag of cement. That, and because she had kicked off her blankets during her sleep, causing the warmth to escape her body. It seemed like the other girl had also woken up at the same time as her, because as soon as Victória opened their chat Jirou sent her a new text.

 **Earphone** : Wake up sleepyhead you're gonna miss your date

 **Vic** : It's not a date

 **Earphone** : It is if you actually ask her out, Komodo Dumbass

 **Vic** : We talked about this last night

Enough fooling around, she could answer Jirou and get ready at the same time. Victória forced herself to get up and walked to the main room of the apartment. Her mother had already left to teach the morning classes at Little Stars, so she'd have to prepare breakfast for herself. She filled a small bowl with some bootleg corn flakes she had found on the convenience store close to their house, and poured milk on it. It was funny to laugh at, but not to eat. Either that, or cardboard was a popular flavor in Japan.

 **Earphone** : That wasn't "talking about it"

 **Earphone** : You said, and I quote

 **Earphone** : "I'm baby"

 **Vic** : Let me live please

After her less than great breakfast was done, she went back to her room to choose an appropriate outfit – a task that proved to be more difficult than it should have been. _It was just hanging out, right?_ Uraraka wouldn't mind if she chose to wear something more relaxed instead of the cutesy clothes she had helped her pick the other day at the mall.

Right?

"This is not a date." Victória repeated aloud, while hesitantly putting the outfit Uraraka liked: a striped long sleeved black and white t-shirt and matching thigh highs, a long fuchsia skirt and some pink flats. She let her hair go free for today, as she only really tied it into a ponytail when she was training. Giving her own reflection a thumbs up as she passed by the mirror in the corner of her room, she finally headed out of the house – but not before getting her bag and stuffing some snacks into it, as well as her gifts for Uraraka.

 **Earphone** : C'mon I told you about the Yaoyorozu thing

 **Earphone** : I won't judge you or anything just tell me why you don't wanna officially ask her out

Despite her apartment being in an area that was still considered Musutafu by official maps, it was far away from hotspots such as U.A. or the Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall. It was located in a residential area in the border between Musutafu and Tokyo, where the buildings got gradually bigger and bigger towards the side of the latter. There was a train station not far away from Victória's apartment, and she boarded the train there every day to go to school. Though today her destination was different (not only because it was Sunday): Uraraka's house, located across the city from where she lived. She would also have lunch somewhere around that area, since there was a considerable time gap between the current hour and the time she had scheduled to pick up her friend.

 **Earphone** : Stop running away from your own mind

 **Earphone** : If I can do it then so can you

Uraraka lived in an apartment complex in the border between Hosu and Musutafu, a convenient place for a hero since the former was always jam-packed with villains – and coincidentally, job opportunities for those who hunted them down. Though not so convenient for the civilians who just so happen to be affected by the villains of both of the cities.

 **Earphone** : You there?

 **Earphone** : I'm assuming it's already date time for you

 **Earphone** : Mine is in like ten minutes or so

After having lunch in a surprisingly good ramen shop, Victória decided to kill some time by taking a walk at a nearby park – a haven of green in the middle of the towering gray skyscrapers. After about three laps, she sat on a bench and zoned out while basking in the sun. Luckily, a boy who recognized her from the Sports Festival snapped her out just in time so she didn't arrive at Uraraka's house late.

 **Earphone** : Good luck, Victória Machado.

She was waiting for Victória in front of the entrance, smiling sweetly and waving at her foreign friend. She was wearing her usual casual clothes: a pastel pink shirt, black shorts and a pair of magenta sneakers.

"Hey, nice to see you!" Uraraka walked closer to Victória, noticing she was wearing the outfit they picked together. "You look cute! Where are we going first? You didn't really tell me anything besides that it would be fun."

"That's all you need to know for now." Victória smiled and took a mental breath before reaching out for Uraraka's hand. "Come on, I've planned a lot of things for today but standing around isn't one of them."

* * *

"Up next is our visit to the local cat café. Right on time for our last activity of the day as well. How does that sound?" Victória said, not taking her eyes off the Mario Kart arcade machine that both of them were playing. "The best comes last, trust me."

"Sounds good for— hey, stop that!" Uraraka yelped mid-sentence as Victória's Bowser crashed onto the side of her Rosalina's vehicle, launching her off the track for the fifth time that match. Even if this was (not) a date, Victória didn't want to hold herself back when it came to games.

"I've given you two chances to choose a heavier kart already. It's your fault at this point." Victória snickered, now in first place after having bypassed Uraraka and a CPU player that had been standing close to her.

"But I really like Rosalina!" Uraraka pouted, slowly getting back on track with the help of the fishing rod carrying Lakitu. "Why do you always choose Bowser anyways?"

"..."

"Oh! I get it now, heheh~ You two do look kinda similar, don't you? Specially before the sports festival, when you scales were still green."

"Yeah. Mom likes to joke around that he's my actual dad. And you know, we don't know where he is so it might be a possibility."

"Victória… How does it feel?"

"Huh?" She turned around and got up as the race over message appeared on screen, catching Uraraka standing there with a worried facial expression. Or was it pity?

Uraraka stands as they get ready to leave, looking flustered. "You know… Not knowing where your actual family is…" She pauses, thinking over her words. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to – if it's not a goof subject for you…"

"It's fine, don't worry." Victória pondered about the question for a while. It wasn't something she thought about as often anymore, so it was hard for her to choose a single word or sentence that defined her emotions about the subject. Although Uraraka's expression was getting more worried the longer she went without saying something, so she'd have to spit out an answer even if it ended up being only half coherent.

"It's… Bittersweet, I guess." Victória shrugged and looked away as she answered. "I mean… I know where _one_ of them is. But my father could very well be still alive. And… I guess that makes me a little excited? It could be anyone. It could be someone bad, or someone good. No way of finding out until I actually meet him somehow."

"Hm… I like that answer." Uraraka smiled, scratching the back of her neck. "I thought I had asked you something too difficult for a while, I'm glad I didn't make things awkward."

Victória muttered a small "it's fine" and they started walking out of the arcade. Before they could reach the exit, however, Uraraka called Victória to see something interesting that she had just found.

"A photo booth? I haven't seen one of those in ages..."

"They're popular in Japan!" Uraraka commented, walking ahead and practically dragging Victória in with her.

Luckily both girls were relatively short, so there was a lot of space in the cabin. That didn't mean they stood far from each other, oh no. Uraraka made sure to sit as close as possible to Victória, wrapping an arm around her waist and quickly pressing the OK button. The other girl barely had any time to pose as she heard four clicks in a row, followed by the sound of their pictures being pressed outside.

Uraraka practically ran outside to see them, smiling at the results. She took the strip of pictures and divided it in two, giving half of the photographs to Victória and stuffing the other half in her pocket.

"I want to remember this day... Thank you for doing so many nice things for me, Victória."

* * *

"Here it is, the apartment building where I live. But we're really going inside, I've got something else planned."

It was already pretty late at that point. The number of people on the streets thinned, as well as the number of establishments still open. The streetlights were slowly lighting up as the luminosity went down, and the cool night breeze started to blow their hairs in front of their faces in a rather ungracious manner. Both girls entered the building, with Uraraka following behind VIctória as they got into the empty elevator. Victória pressed the button for the roof, and it didn't take long before they were there.

"Woah…" Uraraka quickly rushed to the edge of the roof, gripping onto the guard rails as she looked at the sky. Despite being bombarded by lights from both Tokyo and Musutafu, the stars still shone bright in the sky. The full moon also lent its presence – something that Victória hadn't planned but enjoyed nonetheless. Uraraka could even swear she had seen a comet passing by!

"That's it. That's what I had planned." Victória smiled at Uraraka's reaction. She walked besides her and sat down, gesturing for the other to do the same. "I've seen you looking at the stars a few times before and… Well, I thought you'd enjoy this."

"This is perfect, Victória! A perfect way to finish off such a fun day!"

Victória didn't say anything, instead simply reaching out to grab Uraraka's hand like she had done earlier. With their fingers intertwined, Victória blushed slightly as she felt how warm the other's skin felt to the touch. Both of them simply stared at the sky, contemplating the natural light show that presented before them. When a cloud obstructed their view, they'd simply look down into the streets below to watch passing cars, people, and even a few stray animals. Everything felt so small compared to them from the angle they were standing, it was hard to imagine each of those people had their own unique characteristics and personal lives. But that was what made humans so special: no matter how many times you've seen a person passing around on the street, you won't know what their story is, their motivations, their desires. It is impossible to know what makes someone the way they are without getting close to them, both physically and emotionally.

And Victória really wanted to know what made Uraraka Ochako the wonderful person she was today.

"Ah, that's right!" VIctória suddenly remembered something, and reached inside her bag. "I got you something."

Before Uraraka could object, Victória pulled out one of the gifts she had bought in the mall with Jirou: the Kirby plush with a miniature black belt wrapped around it. Uraraka let out a gasp and picked it up from Victória's hands, examining it as best as she could in the dim lighting of the roof and hugging it close to her chest.

"I love Kirby!" Really, who doesn't? "Thank you so much for that Victória! What martial art does he practice?"

"Um, well…" Victória's cheeks flushed slightly, although it was hard to see as well. "The belt didn't come together with him. It's… To represent your internship with Gunhead."

"Oh! I see. That's clever." Uraraka giggled, looking at Kirby then back at Victória. "This is nice.

Thank you so much for your gift, but I'm afraid I didn't buy you anything though…"

"That's fine, Uraraka. Really, just spending the day with you was all I could ask for. And also, I'm not done with the gifts yet." And with that, Victória pulled a second object from her bag, taking another gasp out from Uraraka.

"Victória...! You didn't have to..." Uraraka's eyes went side as the other suddenly took another gift from inside her bag. The box was pastel pink with golden markings in the corners. The front read, in bubbly Latin letters: Love Mirai.

"it's... My favorite band..." Uraraka carefully picked up the box, raising it to her eye level and studying the words printed on the sides. "I... I really can't thank you enough for this, really! Thank you so much!"

Uraraka set the gift aside and spread her arms open, almost throwing himself into Victória as she went for a hug. The other simply smiled with a slight blush on her face, hugging her back tightly. It lasted for more time than both of them realized, as they both looked awkward as they undid the hug.

After about an hour or so, even the nightlife in Musutafu had started to slow down. Even bars and nightclubs started closing their doors. Both VIctória and Uraraka were sitting in a comfortable silence, leaning against each other with their shoulders touching. Victória had been too comfortable to move, until she caught a glimpse of a street clock on the street below. It was almost midnight already! She was going to ask Uraraka if she wanted her to accompany her back home, when she felt the other girl's hand suddenly squeeze tighter onto her own.

"Uraraka..." Victória gulped, her face being slowly consumed by a blush. This was going too fast for her poor heart to handle.

"Victória... I wanted to ask you something. I hope it's not too awkward..." Uraraka let out a nervous chuckle, turning her body away from the sky to completely face her friend.

Victória's heart was pounding in her chest like a jackhammer. It was the end of the night - their night - and she was starting to doubt something like that would even happen. Whatever Uraraka wanted to say to her, she was ready to hear it.

"It's about... Romance."

Another gulp. She knew it was coming. She reached to grasp Uraraka's free hand with her own, enjoying the feeling of soft skin brushing gently against her somewhat rough scales. They looked at each other straight in the eyes, and for a moment it was almost possible to see a soft glow enveloping their bodies.

"Do you think... Deku likes me back?"

Out of all the things Uraraka could have said, that was the worst one.

Victória was suddenly snapped out of her fantasy world and harshly reminded that… _That was not a date_. No matter how much she wanted to pretend it was, it was not. She didn't have the courage to officially ask Uraraka out in one, and just hoped she'd get Victória's intentions. She didn't, and here they were.

"Midoriya? I… I don't know…"

"I guess it's pretty obvious I like him by now, isn't it?" Uraraka let out a nervous chuckle, looking down at her lap. "Sometimes I wonder if… He sees anything in me. I think he is a great candidate for a future hero, and a wonderful friend. He's caring, strong and… And… I don't think I'm all that much compared to him."

"Uraraka..."

"I wonder if he even knows I exist. He must get dozens of proposals from other girls every day, being as amazing as he is. And I'm just here, looking from afar and watching him slowly drift away without saying a word. Do you think he knows I exist?"

"Ochako." Uraraka was a little surprised by Victória's sudden firm tone in her voice, as well as the use of her first name. Both girls were starting to tear up slightly, but neither of them could see that due to the dim light

"Ochako, don't you... _Dare_ speak of yourself like that ever again." Victória bit her lip, trying to hold her emotions back. "You're the most... You're my favorite person in the whole world."

"Victória..."

"You're just as caring, strong and beautiful as him, if not even more. I won't let you put yourself down because of someone ever again. You're... I..."

Another shot.

"You're the best friend I could have ever asked for!"

Another miss.

* * *

 **Vic** : Hey

 **Earphone** : Dude it's 3 am and we have our internships tomorrow

 **Vic** : Yeah

Victória set her cup of tea on the ground beside her futon. Her mother was understanding enough to let her stay up as late as she needed to sort out her thoughts – but even then, she'd have to go to sleep some time. It was going to be a long and probably embarrassing day, and she'd need all the energy she could muster to avoid trying to fight Midnight at the first minor conflict.

 **Earphone** : How was your date?

 **Vic** : Midoriya Izuku.

 **Earphone** : What

 **Earphone** : …

 **Earphone** : Oh my god

 **Earphone** : You didn't ask her out

 **Vic** : I was scared

 **Vic** : I don't know why, but I just was

 **Vic** : I couldn't bring myself to say it no matter how well things were doing

 **Vic** : I just

 **Vic** : I got really scared that she wouldn't like me as well and I'd just end up making our friendship super awkward and we'd eventually drift away and not speak ever again

 **Vic** : There, I said it

She let out a sigh, rubbing her now puffy and red eyes. She had told herself she wouldn't cry about it when she got home. She had also told herself she would ask Uraraka out by the end of the day. Failures reproduce, desires fade, tea cools down.

 **Vic** : How was yours?

 **Earphone** : Heartbreakingly heterosexual

 **Earphone** : Truth be told, I didn't ask her out as well

 **Earphone** : I was gonna do it at the end but she kept talking about Todoroki the whole time

 **Earphone** : Ruined the mood

 **Earphone** : God if his quirk wasn't like super busted I'd make him catch these hands

 **Vic** : It's not his fault though

 **Earphone** : It's not Midoriya's fault yet you're still angry at him

 **Vic** : I'm not

 **Vic** : You know what

 **Vic** : I'm done lying to myself

 **Vic** : I want to punch that broccoli face so bad

She had already gone through the five stages of grief multiple times that night, in various different orders and intensities. She was simply a husk now, one whose emotions had long departed and left behind a cold, static mess.

 **Earphone** : Man this sucks

 **Earphone** : Next time we should just go on a date with each other instead

 **Vic** : Sure

 **Vic** : You're paying since I spent all my money on that CD box

 **Earphone** : We don't need money to go to my place and watch movies and eat each other out

 **Vic** : Cool

 **Vic** : Wait are you serious?

 **Earphone** : Are you?

 **Vic** : 3 AM me is, but I'm not sure about normal human hours me

 **Vic** : I'll think about it

 **Earphone** : Same

 **Earphone** : Goodnight new girlfriend!

 **Vic** : Night.

Victória set her phone aside and pulled the blankets over her, closing her eyes for the first time that night. It was hard to convince herself that it was not a big deal. Uraraka looked as happy as ever when she was taking her home, and her parents were pretty nice as well. Her world wouldn't end just because of a failed romance attempt.

But it still hurt. It left an open wound inside her soul that would scar for a long time. Knowing she couldn't do something as simple as ask her crush out, when she had achieved things far more difficult in the past.

Finally, her consciousness faded, and her body felt peace for the next three hours.


	15. Mutual Embarrassment, Spiked Accessories

**Author's notes: I'm home! This was all I managed to get out before resting for the trip, unfortunately. Hope you still enjoy it!**

 **Also, it seems like I'm getting my terms mixed up. Apparently this wasn't really an internship, but just field training? I'm going to keep it as everything in future chapters so that it doesn't get even more confusing. This is the Field Training/Vs Hero Killer Arc.**

* * *

The next morning, Aizawa escorted everyone in class 1-A to the train station so that they could go to their internships. Some of them were going to farther places in Japan – like Kyushu – while others didn't even need to be at the train station because their chosen Pro Hero's workplace was located close enough to their home.

Victória said goodbye to Uraraka as she watched her board her train to somewhere else in Musutafu, but she couldn't bring herself to look at her in the eye. Uraraka probably noticed this, as her usual smile turned to a frown at the last minutes of their short conversation, but didn't say anything about it. Was she hiding something as well? Or did she not have enough time to do so before she rushed to say goodbye to Midoriya and Iida? Victória thought about her frown the whole time as the number of classmates by the station dwindled, and then her train finally came.

Although Midnight's residence was located in a popular area of Tokyo, the train she took wasn't as crowded as she had expected. Every other chair had a person in it, so there was a good amount of space on the overhead rack to put her bag containing spare clothes and supplies – as well as the futuristic-looking briefcase that had her hero costume inside. She took out her headphones and plugged them into her phone, fetching a playlist that Jirou had made for her containing a variety of punk rock and metal songs she thought would fit her. Neither of them mentioned anything about their "dates" – it was something they quietly agreed to only discuss after the internship was over as to not take focus out of their learning experience.

She thought about messaging anyone during the long trip, but she was pretty out of options. Most people were using this time to get mentally prepared – and others (like Jirou) were catching up on their lost sleep.

After what felt like an eternity, the train came to a halt; the speakers were quick to confirm that she had in fact arrived in Tokyo. She immediately took her bags and headed out the door, pulling out a map on her phone to guide her to her destiny.

Midnight's residence wasn't as big as Yaoyorozu's, but it was still pretty impressive. It was designed after a typical American manor, although it only had two floors. The walls were pained in light beige, while the roof was of a brownish-orange coloration. Although the architecture of the place wasn't what surprised her the most – it was the fact that there was another student waiting by the door, also carrying their bags and hero costume with them.

"Oh, she chose you too? I'm kind of glad I won't stay here alone." Rui's expression was a mix of both flustered and relieved. "You know… She has a reputation."

"Mhm. I guess we won't embarrass ourselves alone anymore." Victoria let out a sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She hadn't talked to Rui long enough to be embarrassed about their circumstances, but she already knew what kinds of sentences were going to be said by their instructor because of their shared stay. "Don't think about sneaking into each other's bedrooms at nighttime" was a classic one.

"Have you rang the doorbell yet?" She let out after a while as nobody opened the door for them.

"N...Not yet, no. I was kind of afraid to do so, to be honest." Rui muttered, a small blush appearing on his cheeks. Victoria wasted no time and rang it herself.

"I wanna know the real reason she chose me. I know she chose you because you're submissive," she said, being met with a flustered "hey!" from Rui, "but I'm not sure if I match any of her fantasies."

"Maybe she just wants to... Um, punish you because of the Sports Festival speech thing? I mean, I'm not saying you did something wrong, just something that could be considered harmful for the faculty and..." Rui's speech slowly devolved into quiet mumbling. Victoria had tuned his voice out for a while before the door finally opened.

"It's not very polite to speculate about the hostess fetishes right by her doorstep, you know?" Midnight had a smirk on her face as she said that. She was wearing a casual outfit consisting of a sweater and jeans, as well as a pair of glasses.

Both foreign students went quiet and glanced at each other before Midnight continued.

"But I want you to have a good stay here, so I will ignore that." She three her arms open. "Welcome to your first hero work experience! Please come in, I'll show you two where you can drop your bags."

The interior of the residence looked as big as the exterior, and equally as luxurious. On the first floor there were about four main rooms not counting bathrooms, and a stairwell leading to the second floor. Midnight took them though a hallway that split into two bedrooms, separated from the rest of the house by a sliding door.

Victória's room looked almost like what one would expect from a five stars hotel. There was a king sized bed with two pairs of pillows on it, a moderately sized desk and a comfortable looking chair to match, an armchair and a big closet that was partially filled with aromatic candles and other assorted beauty products. There was also a white box in the closet, wrapped nearly with a red ribbon.

"Your new hero costumes should be inside the closet! Put them on and meet me by the living room on the first floor." Midnight's voice shouted from the distance. _So that's what that was._

Victória went back into the closet and picked up the box. She set it onto the bed and undid the ribbon with a single pull on the right strand, slowly pulling out the lid. She was expecting it to be something like that, but she didn't actually _want_ it to.

The outfit consisted of a sheer top under a black bralette, along with a crescent moon print skirt and fishnet thigh highs. There were also a pair of spiked wristbands, and a spiked choker.

 _It was going to be a long week._

* * *

"Listen closely as we walk. The patrol is one of the most important hero duties. During it, we walk around a set area in search of wrongdoers and possible crime leads. It's also a good way to raise your popularity as you greet and gain the approval of the locals."

A small crowd – composed mostly of young adult and middle aged men – followed the trio as they walked around Midnights turf. They were instructed to pose for all pictures and ignore (or at least not react negatively) all inappropriate comments directed towards them.

"I know it's probably Midnight's presence, but it feels weird to have so many eyes on us..." Rui gulped as he walked behind the Pro Hero. His new hero costume consisted of a red wine tuxedo and slacks, a black bowtie, black shoes and a pair of white gloves.

"Be grateful that people aren't trying to take pictures of your underwear. Seriously, I'm fifteen. **Fifteen**." Victória groaned and tugged the hem of her skirt down.

Midnight struck her whip against the ground. "Attention is attention, Tarasque. This is to compensate for the poor viewing rates on your part of the Sports Festival."

"Excuse me, but shouldn't Rui- I'm sorry, what's your hero name again?"

"S-Sapper…"

"Right, shouldn't Sapper be walking around in a thong if that's the case? I bet that would be right up your alley too."

"I'm just following the statistics. Men in suits are considered more attractive by teenagers and young adults. Which is your target demographic at the moment."

"Well I wouldn't know." Victoria muttered under her breath.

"Stop!" Midnight suddenly shouted, and Victória could see that she was pressing her finger against a hidden earpiece in her left ear. "Middle aged man robbing a bank about fifty meters from here. Close ranged poisoning quirk. Perfect learning opportunity! Let's go you two!"

Victória and Rui followed Midnight as she ran through a series of narrow alleyways that led to a small plaza. On the opposite side of where they arrived through, it was possible to see a group of police officers wielding shields and batons forming a line in front of a building that the students quickly recognized as said bank. As they got closer, they could see that the glass door had been shattered, but not the glass panes on both sides of it. A blonde man in run down sweatpants and a grease stained white shirt was inside, holding a plastic bag full of bills. There were about four other people there, but they were tied up by sturdy looking ropes.

"Let us though, boys," Midnight touched the shoulder of one of the officers, and a row immediately opened so that they could walk towards the crime scene, "I have a lesson to teach."

"Ha, they couldn't even be bothered to send a proper superhero, what a shame!" The criminal laughed. It became possible to see that there were what looked like tiny stingers located on his palms. "Guess I can take care of this bitch by myself while the police calls someone more competent."

The man suddenly lunged forward, but stopped as Midnight struck her whip in front of him. He tried walking forward from various angles but was halted every time. He finally puffed up his cheeks and tried powerwalking forward again, expecting another strike at his feet, but this time the tip of the whip hit his abdomen and caused him to recoil in pain. This went on for a whole minute, with Midnight laughing the whole time, before she grabbed onto one of her sleeves and ripped it off. A purple gas started leaking from the exposed skin, and Midnight strategically maneuvered her whip so that the criminal would have no choice but to enter the gas cloud to avoid getting struck. A grave mistake, as he soon fell onto the ground unconscious after a few seconds of breathing it in.

"Wow." Both students let out in unison. Despite Midnight's questionable aesthetic choices, they had to admit she was a very skilled hero.

"I want you two to pay close attention to what I do in each of these scenarios." Midnight picked up the fallen man and tossed him onto one of the police officers as if he was a ragdoll. "Because you'll need to have a good strategy in mind if you want to catch your first villain by the end of this internship."


	16. Aromatherapy

**Author's notes: Thank you ColorfulChanges for the input! I'll keep that in mind when writing the next chapters. Specially because I'm only following the anime, so I have to slow down or else I'm gonna run out of canon. I'm going to have to read the manga sooner or later anyways, but still, you're right about large jumps in time being confusing.**

 **Also, check out my new fics "I'm Waiting for Him" and "Midnight Mishaps" if you can! They're not OC fics, but they were still pretty fun to write! The former is still ongoing as well.**

* * *

"Here they are, your temporary quirk licenses! They only last until Sunday, so don't go wild thinking you can be fully fledged heroes yet."

Victória looked at the small cards placed on the table in front of her. One of them was hers, and the other was for Rui. An interesting detail was that her scales were already black in the picture, meaning it had been taken after the Sports Festival. But by who? She shifted in this chair, a bit uncomfortable about all the possibilities but still interested in seeing where this was going.

"Mistress, I have a question." Rui raised his hand, and Victória cringed at how easily he had accepted the title. "Who… Why do we have these again? You said we were going to catch our first villain during this internship, but you… Didn't actually give us any more information besides that."

"Patience, Sapper!" Midnight struck her whip on the table, producing a loud noise and making both of them jump slightly in surprise. Even though that was the third time she had done it just that day.

Midnight got a controller of some kind that was also on the table, and pressed the big red button on it. A projection screen suddenly came down on the opposite end of the room, showing what looked like a criminal record file. The mugshot was of a man who was in his twenties or so. He had average looking spiky brown hair and eyes of the same color, but what stood out the most about his features was a large tattoo depicting a flame. It started on the right side of his forehead, and it went down and around his right eye until it reached his collar. It wasn't possible to see if it continued further down, but Victória speculated it did. The tattoo was specially impressive because it was fully colored, with a mix of red, orange and yellow that blended almost seamlessly.

"Waremono Haku. Age twenty-five. An ex-bartender, before he decided to abandon it all to cause as much chaos as he could." Midnight stopped reading the file, and turned to face them again. "He isn't very dangerous, but he is the son of a Japanese government official, so he gets bailed out of jail each and every time. It's starting to get annoying even for us Pro Heroes. In my opinion, it's perfect first try for you guys."

Silence. Both of the students were honored that Midnight judged them to be of a high enough potential to face their first ever villain in their first year of high school, but… Were they really? They hadn't been in U.A. for that long, and even though they had already learned the basics of heroism and the bureaucracy that came with it, none of the exercise had been that practical before.

More importantly, those had been exercises; School activities with the sole intent of showing students how they could improve for when they had to face a real situation. This was the real situation, and failure would lead to a lot more consequences than simply getting a bad grade. Real people were at risk – and they were as well!

Midnight had probably noticed their apprehensiveness, as she cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest. "So? What do you think? Are you up to the challenge?"

Even more silence. But surprisingly, Rui was the first one to speak up.

"I'm nervous, mistress." He glanced at Victória, who was still pondering about the offer. "But… Together, I think we can do it! What do you think, Victória?"

"Hm… Judging by his tattoos, he has a fire related quirk. So it's nothing I can't handle. And with Rui's help, it's very likely that we'll succeed. We just need some more information and time to analyze it."

"Alright, that's the spirit!" Midnight clapped her hands together, smirking. "I thought you were going to chicken out of it for a moment, but I'm glad that wasn't the case. Seeing young people with such determination… It makes me excited. Maybe even a little h–"

"Can we take our hero costumes out now, please? It's getting cold." Victória suddenly spoke, not willing to let her finish that sentence – wherever it was heading, like Midnight herself, it was most likely 18+ as well.

"Ah, about that." Midnight looked a little disappointed as she used the controller again, making the projection screen rise again. "I'm going to a photo-shoot now and… Well, let's say I can't legally take you with me yet. I'm going to leave some documents regarding Haku with you, and you can study them together however you like. I'm also going to bring dinner for us on my way back, but there are a few snacks in the fridge in case you get hungry."

Victória muttered a small thank you and bowed her head politely. Rui followed soon after. Midnight left after about ten minutes, wearing a trench coat to hide a rather indecent costume. Both of the students took a shower in the bathroom included in each of their rooms, and came back to the living room as they had scheduled earlier – now in more casual clothes.

Victória retrieved a large bag of chips and green tea for both of them, and the two started analyzing away at their future nemesis. It was really fascinating – the guy had been in and out of jail at least five times just that year. His quirk was another generic flame-throwing one, way weaker than the likes of Endeavor and Todoroki's left side, but still damaging enough to cause considerable property damage. There were no confirmed deaths, but countless injured.

It sounded too easy for most Pro Heroes, and nobody really wanted to take care of him. So Victória and Rui were doing them a small favor in a way.

"Hm… If we take him to a confined room – though well ventilated enough so that we don't asphyxiate because of the fire – we should have a good advantage against him." Victória affirmed, writing down her conclusions on a separate sheet of paper.

"Yeah! I can fill the room with traps using my quirk, and we can distract him so he won't be able to focus on one of us for too long." Rui smiled, stuffing a handful of chips into his mouth.

"Ah, about that." Victória turned to face him. "I don't think I was ever introduced to your quirk, sorry. How does it work?"

"Oh! I see, it's fine. Well… It's a little complex, so let me try demonstrating it."

Rui brought his palms together over the table, and when he separated them a glass identical to the one they were drinking from appeared out of thin air. It was an almost identical replica, the only thing being that it was completely white instead of transparent.

"This next part is going to hurt a bit, so get ready. I'm going to do it when I count to three. One… Two… Three!"

As soon as Rui said three, the fake glass turned into a puff of what looked like smoke. It rapidly condensed into a vague ball shape, and travelled through the air until it hit Victória's arm. It… Felt like an actual glass hit her – though the projectile travelled slowly enough so that she didn't feel any pain.

"I'm… Still working on the colors, but that's basically it." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It consumes my energy just like exercising would. The larger the object – and the faster it goes – the more it tires me out. So I have to eat a whole more to compensate. What… What do you think?"

"Hm… A lot of potential, yeah." Victória nodded, trying to incorporate his quirks in the scenarios she had in mind. "You should talk to this girl from my class, Yaoyorozu. Her quirk also allows her to make stuff."

"Ah, I will! Now… How does yours work?" He tilted his head slightly, showing curiosity. "I'm pretty sure it's related to heat, since you set yourself on fire at the Sports Festival."

"Mhm. I get stronger the hotter it gets, to put it simply. And the opposite applies to cold." Victória got up from her chair. "Give me a moment, I have to get something."

Victória headed towards the room she had been assigned, and returned with one of Midnight's aromatic candles and a box of matches. She used one to light the candle, striking the match against her scales, and a soft scent of lavender soon filled the air.

"Huh? What was that for?"

"I just wanted to try one of them. I'm sure Midnight won't mind it." She sat back down, putting the candle on a part of the table that had no paper on it for obvious reasons.

"Oh, I see. I thought you were going to do something cool with fire of a moment." Rui let out a small embarrassed chuckle. "That would have been cool. Like, what if you could control the fire to go around you like an armor or something? I've seen Endeavor doing that for show, and in your case it'd actually give you an advantage."

"I guess that would be pretty handy." Victória placed a hand above the small flame, feeling the warmth seeping into her. "Maybe I could try something like that for my hero costume, but I don't really see how it would work. Omar probably does, but it's still too early for me to go asking him stuff yet."

"Who's Omar?"

"Guy from the support course, he built a pretty impressive… Bulletproof vest, I think? He showed it on the Sports Festival."

"Ah, that! Yeah, it was pretty funny to see him winning against the engine guy from your class." Rui snickered at the memory of Iida being flung offstage effortlessly.

"Yeah, that's him. Pretty eccentric, but he's good." She nodded. "If he can make something like that in less than a semester, I'm sure making me a fire armor wouldn't be too hard. Though it'd be much easier if I could make the fire…"

Victória went silent as she noticed a tiny little detail. As her hand trailed away from the candle, it suddenly went out. Though when she reached for another match, she noticed the flame was moving in the air along with her hand, keeping the same distance from her hand as before.

"…Stick to me?"

Rui leaned closer to her to see what was happening. "Had that never happened before?"

"I don't think so… I've never tried before." Victória waved her hand around slowly, watching the flame follow it no matter what. "What do I do?"

"I don't know, try moving it with your mind or something!" Rui shrugged.

Victória nodded and tried to think about the flame stopping. Surely enough, it stayed in place when she moved her hand again. She got up from the chair and slowly backed off. The flame got smaller with each step, before it disappeared completely. "How far away was that? Five meters?"

"About it, I think! This is really cool!" Rui smiled, reaching for the box of matches and lighting up another one. "Take a few steps forward and try calling it to you!"

Victória nodded and did just that. It took a few mental "come over here"s, but she was able to slowly get the flame off the stick and floating towards her. It went faster the closer it got to her, and after a few seconds it was touching her open palm. She then thought the opposite, and sent it flying back onto the stick.

"So cool!" Rui cheered and lit a couple more matches. Let's see what else we can do!

* * *

" _Are you done taking the picture? Doing this is starting to tire me out."_

" _Almost done, almost done!"_

" _Just press the damn button."_

" _It's so hot, I can feel it from here!"_

Midnight finally took her ear off the door and got her keys from her pocket, a devilish smirk on her face. She quickly found the right one and put it inside the lock, opening the front door to their residence. "I'm home, and I brought some bento boxes! You guys better not be doing anything naughty, or else you'll get no desser– What the hell is happening here?!"

Midnight's surprise was justifiable, considering the scene she just walked into. There were about three boxes worth of matches scattered on the ground. Victória was standing on top of the table with her hands up, and a basketball-sized fireball hovering above them. Rui was currently taking pictures of her, before the color suddenly drained out of his face when he saw the Pro Hero.

"Um… Victória can do a new thing."

"…It's what he said." She nodded, equally as embarrassed by the situation.

Midnight blinked twice, then ran a hand over her face. "We can talk about this during dinner. Now please, clean this mess."

"Yes mistress!" Rui bowed politely, putting Victória's phone on the table and rushing to collect all the used matchsticks lying around. Victória got off the table and walked in front of Midnight, hands now in front of her to "carry" the fiery orb.

"Um, what should I do with this?"

"Just… Dispose of it outside, please." Midnight sighed and walked towards the kitchen to get some chopsticks for them.

Victória opened the door, careful to not let the fire touch it, and stood outside for a whole minute while thinking what to do. Luckily, no one was on the streets at the time, or else they'd see the fireball rising up to the sky before slowly dissipating.

Dinner was ready in about ten minutes. Everyone was deadly quiet during the first half of it – with Victória and Rui eyeing each other trying to figure if their teacher was mad at them – before Midnight suddenly burst into laughter. "Seriously, what the hell was that? How did you… How?"

"I just did it." Victória shrugged, eating another piece of tempura before speaking up again. "I had lit one of your candles and I was playing with the fire when I just suddenly discovered I could do that."

"Well, that's not something you see every day for sure! Well, not since Midoriya at the entrance exam." Midnight wiped the tears off her face, still holding back some chuckles. "Had you really never done that before?"

"No. I don't stay close to fire that often, and I'd never thought about doing it, so I guess it's just never happened. Either than, or it has something to do with my scales darkening."

"Very well." Midnight nodded and continued eating in silence. Eventually they had all finished, letting out a simultaneous "thanks for the meal!"

Victória and Rui said goodnight to the Pro Hero and prepared to sleep. That had sure been a wild day, and it was only their first! Victória was excited to tell all her friends about her newfound ability, especially…

Ah, that's right. She still couldn't bring herself to talk to her. Not yet.

 **Vic** sent you a file: " "!

 **Vic** : Last thing you see before you die.

She waited for a reply for about ten minutes before she gave up. Jirou must have been tired from her first day at the internship, so she would probably only have time to answer tomorrow. With a bitter taste in her mouth, Victória slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Victória… VIctória, wake up, it's important!"

Victória slowly opened her eyes, and almost jumped as he saw Midnight's face right over hers. She was still in her pajamas, and looked quite annoyed because of whatever announcement she had to give. Victória fetched for her phone in the nightstand beside the bed, the digital clock marking 5 AM.

"Hm…?"

"You're going to be taking today off. Your father wants to talk with you."

Victória raised an eyebrow and sat upright. "I don't have a father."

"Well, that's not my business. It's just what your mother told me over the phone. You better get ready soon too, she sounded pretty impatient." And with that, Midnight left the room, drifting off to her own to have another hour of sleep.

Victória was puzzled by what her mother meant by "father", until she remembered she'd sometimes present Eros as her father to strangers so that they didn't treat her with pity. What had happened to him, though? Did he get hurt, or did he just miss her a lot? Why did Glória call only Midnight and not Victória as well?

VIctória didn't have much time to ponder about the subject, as the train back home travelled quicker than her thoughts. She had changed into some casual clothes, and left the remainder of her things at Midnight's house since the Pro Hero had specifically mentioned " _today_ " off. She quickly took her keys from her pocket and unlocked the door.

"Hey, you're here already! That was fast."

"Oh! You look a little taller than you did in the Sports Festival!"

She recognized her mother's voice in the first sentence, but…

 **That second voice wasn't Eros.**


	17. My Motive

**A/N: I have precisely five excuses for not posting this earlier but I won't go on about them because you deserve this chapter ASAP.**

* * *

The man was at least seven feet tall – seven feet and five inches, if Victória had to guess. He had light skin, green eyes and a crew cut on his light brown hair. He was currently wearing a cheap-looking gray business suit. The small bags under his eyes and his unruly beard made apparent that he hadn't been able to rest properly for quite some time. He was currently sitting on a chair on the opposite side of the table as Glória, and holding a teacup that looked tiny in comparison to his enormous stature. He had a warm smile on his face.

"Mom?" Victória locked the door behind her and walked forwards, her heart beating faster as the pieces connected in his mind. "And…?"

"Victória, dear." Glória couldn't contain her grin anymore. "This… This man is your father, Victória!"

It was if the world had stopped, if only for a moment. Victória's eyes darted back and forth between her mom and this man – her father. She had a million questions and a million feelings, but she took a deep breath.

"Hi." She finally said, looking up at the man and giving him a shy wave. "Long time no see, I suppose."

The man set the teacup on the table and got up, almost bumping his head onto the ceiling. He then walked towards her, casting a shadow over her figure before he quickly kneeled down. He spread his arms in front of her, but didn't actually do anything. Victória felt ease knowing he was just as confused about the situation as she was. After a quick moment, she spread her own arms and walked forward, giving him a tight hug.

"I've found you." He said in English, his accent showing he was neither Japanese nor Portuguese. She couldn't tell if it was a Spanish or Italian accent. But that didn't matter very much at the moment. "I'm… You are finally here. It's been so long, I'm…"

His words gradually devolved into a sob. Victória patted his back gently, feeling tears streaming down her own face. "I'm here now. I'm… I won't leave you anymore."

They broke the hug after a solid minute, both of their eyes red and with small melancholic smiles on their faces. Glória was clearing her own tears away with a napkin, still sniffling a little. _Now what?_

Luckily, Victória didn't have to figure that out on her own, because Glória spoke up for them. "Come here, you two! Sit by the table. You can catch up while eating, I won't let my delicious orange cake go uneaten on a special occasion like this."

Both of them chuckled and took their respective places by the table. Victória poured herself some coffee, staring blankly at nothing in particular while her mind recovered. After a comfortable moment of silence, she decided to start the seventeen years of catching up they had to do. "What's your name? Where are you from? Wh–"

"Victória!" Her mother scolded. "One question at a time."

"Balthazar. Balthazar Furlan." He said in between bites. "But you can call me… Balto? Balt? I haven't gone by those in years, but…"

"Can I just call you… Dad?" The question made both of the adults let out a simultaneous "d'aww".

"Of course! Dad will do. I haven't been called that in years as well, but… It'll do." He smiled, wiping off some tears that threatened to stream down his face. "I've already talked to your mom about the basics, so I don't have much to ask myself. But… How have you been?"

"I've been fine." Victória fetched for a knife to cut a piece of cake for herself, but found none. She extended the claw on her index fingers and tried to slice it, but her hand was swatted away by her mother's.

"Nuh-uh. You haven't washed your hands. Get yourself a knife while you're at it."

Balthazar gasped and gently took her hand, placing it over his upwards-facing palm. The size difference was notable. "Can you do that with all of your fingers?"

Victória nodded and extended all of her claws. Balthazar pulled his hand away and did the same – although his were much bigger. "Hey, you got something from me besides the eyes! I'm very glad."

"Who do I take the scales from?" Victória headed towards the bathroom to wash her hands. "My mother didn't look like she had scales from the pictures I've seen."

"Oh no, that's from my father." He waved dismissively. "How long did you take to figure out you had to keep going?"

"Uh… Fifteen years. And it was kinda by accident." She returned to the table. "You mean the darkening, right?"

"Oh my, you're an early bloomer. Your grandpa took… Well, fifty years. I was going to tell you that once I met you, but I'm glad you figured it out on your own."

Victória sat down, remembering something she had wanted to ask. It was not an easy topic, but the sooner she asked it the better. She took a deep breath and cut a slice of cake – now using the knife she'd brought on her way back. "Why… Why haven't you come sooner? Why now? And where are you going to live now."

"That's a… Lengthy answer, but the shortest version is that I didn't actually know where you were before I watched the Sports Festival." He took a sip of his tea. "I just… Pretty much ran all the way here when I saw you on TV. I wasn't sure that was you, but… I had a hunch. And I actually just moved into an apartment not too far from here."

"It was kind of crazy." Glória chimed into the conversation, putting her hand over her mouth briefly to cover a chuckle. "He saw you walking to Little Stars one day and talking to me. After my shift ended, he practically begged to let him see you. He convinced me when he described your old mother correctly, and then I took some of your hair from your comb so we could do a DNA test. The results came yesterday, and so we scheduled a meeting with you for today. I… Kind of forgot you had your internship this week, but I'm glad Miss Kayama let you go for today."

Victória listened to the little story quietly, trying to multitask between eating, listening and glancing over at Balthazar to see if he had anything to complement. He stayed equally silent, wiping off small tears occasionally during her speech.

"So, you came all the way from…"

"England. I'm from Italy, but I was living there at the moment."

"So you came all the way to Japan from England, just because you just so happened to find someone that looked like she could have been your missing daughter?" Victória raised an eyebrow, but then smiled so he wouldn't feel too bad about his decisions. "I'm… I'm glad it worked out."

"I'm glad too. I don't speak a word of Japanese." Balthazar let out a small chuckle. "Your mother is probably scolding me from whenever she is."

Victória nodded, going quiet at the mention of her mother. She ate quietly for another minute, before finally blurting out. "What was mom like?"

"Oh, she was the greatest. She was energetic, caring, kind… " It almost sounded like Balthazar had said those words before. Either he must have had to give this explanation many other times before, or he had reenacted this speech beforehand to tell her. "I'm surprised you don't have her quirk. Quirks are usually inherited along with hair color, you know."

"Was her quirk…? Fire related?"

"Hm?" Balthazar raised an eyebrow. "Yes, how do you know that?"

Without another word, Victória got up from her chair and walked towards a cupboard. She took out a box of matches, lighting one and making the flame hover in between her hands.

Both of the adults had their mouths wide open. Glória was the first to get out of her trance, struggling to form words. "W… Why didn't you tell me you could do this sooner, young lady?!"

"I kinda just discovered that yesterday, actually." She blew the flame out and put the matchbox back, returning to her place on the chair. She then turned to face Balthazar. "Was that mom's quirk?"

"Kind… Kind of." Victória wondered how the man hadn't gotten dehydrated yet, the amount of tears he had shed just that morning was at least double of the amount of tea he drank. "She could make fire out of thin air as well as control it. But I'm fine you got both of our quirks. It means… It means a lot for me."

Victória gave him a warm smile, eyeing her mom and seeing she was doing the same. For the first time in her life, she felt like there wasn't a spot missing on the breakfast table.

They went on to talk about all sorts of things throughout the day. Victória learned her father was previously an actor, and somehow managed to get a job at a construction company just because of his sheer size. Balthazar learned that Victória wore mainly black and that she was proficient in all sorts of martial arts. Victória learned that her name was originally going to be " _Luna_ ". Balthazar learned about the villain attacks.

"So… You're going to be a hero?" Balthazar was laying back against a recliner Glória had bought just today. It was already way past midnight, and the crescent moon was visible through the living room window. Glória had told both of them to go to sleep multiple times, arguing they would have way more time to talk after Victória's internship ended, but both of them silently denied and proceeded to chat – mostly making small talk at that point since the important subjects had been discussed earlier that day.

"I guess." Victória huffed, pulling some strands of hair out of her face. She was currently laying down on the floor, coincidentally in just the same place she had done so when she first arrived at the apartment.

"You don't sound very confident to me, Vic." She enjoyed the nickname. It felt right. "Is there something bothering you? Are your teachers too harsh or something?"

"No, it's not that. Well, Aizawa kinda is, but I can tell he cares about us deep down." She stared blankly at the ceiling. "It's just… Everyone seems to have a deep motive for being a hero and all that, and I just… Enrolled because I had the opportunity to do so. I feel like my motive is not strong enough to justify taking the place of another student who could possibly be taking my place."

Balthazar remained in silence for a while. Neither of them felt pressured to answer to each other quickly anymore – after all, their voices were starting to get tired after just eating and talking the whole day. But an answer did come eventually, one that made Victória freeze.

"Do you want me to give you a motive?"

Victória blinked, sitting upright to look at his tired yet happy expression. She took equally as long to answer to that. "Um… Sure. Yes, I want."

"Alright, I'll try to not make this too sappy or like I'm forcing you to agree with me." He let out a small chuckle, taking a deep breath. "My… My first choice for a job wasn't actually acting. You know, there were rumors going around when I was a teen that Italy would make a law that classified hero work as an actual job, just like other countries were doing at the time."

Victória didn't say a word, letting him elaborate. "Well… I don't know how true that was, but it didn't happen. Specially because… You know… Fausto got elected."

"Fausto?" She tried to retrieve the name from her memory, eventually finding something. "That was the guy that was later found out to be collaborating with the Inquisition, right?"

Balthazar nodded. "Yeah, that's… A sad story for another day. But anyways, I've never gotten to be a hero. My own father had also been denied the position due to a false alarm a few decades before, so it was quite shocking when we found out the dream was probably going to end here. But then, I met Cynthia – your mother – and…"

"I'll do it." Victória interrupted him during his pause, not wanting him to cry yet again by making him mention the part of their history where she died. "I'll make the dream come true."

"Wow, really? I still had a whole speech to give you." Balthazar chuckled, breaking the tension that had previously been in the air during his story. "Are you… Don't you think this is too much responsibility for you to carry alone? I would try to become a hero myself now that I'm here in Japan, but I'm apparently a little too old to go very far."

"That's okay. I've found my motive." Victória smiled and rubbed her tired eyelids. "I'm going to do this for you. For us. It just… Feels like it's something I have to do. Like I was meant to do it."

"You can turn back whenever you want if the pressure is too much, though. Don't forget that." Balthazar moved out of the recliner and sat down on the floor in front of Victória, wrapping her in a tight hug. This one felt right. "I'm glad in just having you near me."

"I'll keep that in mind. But don't expect me to give up so easily." She hugged him back, pressing her face against his chest. "I'm going to do this for **us**."

* * *

 **A/N: Okay I said I wasn't going to talk about all them but I gotta talk about one of them.**

 **If you're keeping up with this fic, could you please leave comments? You don't have to do a full review of each chapter, just... Leave some feedback here and there. I want to know what you think about the story. I'm always open to criticism. It makes my day when someone leaves a comment on my fic, even if it's just a simple "I liked this!". It really demotivates me when I see that the hits barely raise with each new chapter, much less kudos and comments.**

 **Anyways, I'm sorry for this little impromptu vent, but I had this on my mind for a while now. I hope you have a nice day. I'll see you next chapter.**


	18. fic cancelled

Hey. Not an actual chapter but I didn't want to just cancel the fic and call it a day.

I feel kinda bad doing this, since Be Like The Moon originally started because I cancelled Gaikokujin, but I just can't bring myself to write this anymore. At least not like it's progressing right now.

Besides some technical mistakes (like underexplaining some parts, not fleshing out the quirk fully before starting to write, etc) but I'm discontinuing this mostly because I was in the wrong mindset while posting it. I just wanted chapters to come out as fast as possible so more people would see it, so quality level fluctuated wildly. And y'know, fics that aren't about the Big Three Ships (kiribaku, tododeku, bakudeku) don't get attention, much less OC ones.

Do I wanna continue Victória's story? Absolutely. I've been revamping on my free time, and I want to give her the big character arc she deserves. Longer chapters with actual content. But I don't know if I'll ever be able to do it. I'm aware that I'm writing basically to myself now, so I might try to write with this different mindset in mind. Not sure how things will go, but I really do feel like returning to these characters some time.

Well, that was all I have to say. If you want more content from me, check my Splatoon fic. That one got a lot of kudos so I felt motivated to put extra care into it. I also have a few other BNHA fics that are honestly a bit underdone but they're short so they won't waste too much of your time.

See ya.


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